No explanation needed!

3 Weeks......

Until the Fair.......Just in case you missed my last post regarding the fair.  Here are a few pictures from last year and the year before. ............

pretending to be a professional bull rider!

Reason 1,088 that we love the fair....FOOD

Hubby and the minis!

I have a love/hate with this ride.....I do love the fact that the fair plays 80's rock pretty much the entire time!!

Birthday Fun!

This past weekend was our neice, Ava's 4th birthday and she had a COWGIRL party!! It was a GREAT party complete with .....horses, WATER GUNS, a pinata, lots of yummy cupcakes and desserts! Happy Birthday Sweet AVA:)  

It's not a special bus, it's just a little one

Hope told us the week school started that she wanted to ride the bus! Pete usually takes her most mornings and he really likes that time with her, but we said she could give it a try.  Yesterday the bus comes and she was very excited to see it arrive right in front of our house! Well, she got on and covered her face and started sobbing saying "I don't want to ride the bus- I want my daddy to take me to school."  Well, I just could not take that, so we got her off and sure enough daddy drove her to school.  

After school yesterday, she told us she REALLY wanted to try it again, so today she jumped on there like such a big girl and was off to school!!

Addie asked her last night "Hopie, why did you not get on that special bus and ride it?"

Hope says " Addie, it is NOT a special bus, it's just a little tiny bus!"

Addie then tells her "well, since you are scared, I can ride with you and when we get to school, mommy can just come pick me up!!"

Thanks for all of your sweet comments while sharing Hope's story..........

Hope's story-part 3

We were excited yet scared at the same time when we found out we were having another baby! I kept remembering what the neurologist had told us.  Again, we knew God was in control and this was all in His plan!! Dr. Bardwell took great care of me and we started seeing a perinatologist pretty early in the pregnancy.  Around the 25th week of my pregancy, I was put on bed rest!  This was NOT fun.  My amniotic fluid was very low and they had me stay in bed laying down ALL day and ALL night! I could shower and go to the restroom!!!  We ended up moving into my parents home for those 4 WEEKS, so that my mom could take care of Hope during the day while Pete was at work!  I was BORED out of my mind.  Thankfully, my friends came over to see me during the day and the evenings as well and would bring me lots of yummy food:)

We got over that hurdle, and the pregnancy continued on fine and Addie Lee was born on January 30th 2004. 

The birth went great and because I was such a nervous wreck, I asked for an apnea monitor just for the 2 nights we were in the hospital.   There were no episodes with her, so we left the hospital with our now complete family of FOUR!!

Addie was a great baby and was sleeping in her crib through the night pretty much right away.  The Lord knew what we needed because Hope was not sleeping through the night until a few months before Addie was born.  

Back to Hope.......she continued to do great and loved preschool, then it was time for KINDERGARDEN!

The spring before she started kindergarden, we moved across town since we were in the beginning stages of starting Vinings Lake.  

The month after we moved and about 8 weeks into the launch of our church, Hope started having seizures!!  I had wondered from the time she was born if she had a seizure disorder........ Everytime we brought this up to the Doctors, they would say that her EEG's were normal and didn't think she was having any.  

I had noticed that she would stare off into space a lot, but when these seizures started, it was SCARY.  It was like her body was in shock and she would fall out on the ground and it would only last about 15-20 seconds  but would feel like an hour for Pete and I.  The day all of this started, we were having dinner with our friends, the Riddles, and all of the children were sitting in my kitchen at a kids size table and my friend watched her fall out of her chair and  go into a seizure.  Right then, Pete an I jumped in the car and went straight to Scottish Rite (Children's Hospital) Emergency Room.  From what we saw, she had 9 seizures that night in a matter of 2 hours.  They started her on some strong meds in the hospital, and also started her on daily meds.  

We scheduled another EEG with our neurologist, but again the results came back normal and showed no seizure activity (obviously which is a good thing, but she was still having them.)

This was another very stressful time.  I had  a hard time eating and sleeping.  I would fall asleep and have dreams of Hope having seizures and I was scared to death to leave her for any amount of time.  I thought someone had to be watching her 24/7 and not take their eyes off of her just in case she had another one.........I am happy to report, yes, I stopped worrying, started eating and sleeping again and the best news is that she has been SEIZURE FREE SINCE JUNE OF 06!!!!!!!!!  YAY!  She is still taking daily medication, but they are going to begin weaning her off of it in the next couple of months.  

Kindergarten started and she did great!!! We liked it so much we decided to do it again.......we had decided early on to hold her back.  The second year of kindergarten went even better.  She started reading right away and has done amazing.  She receives therapy (physical, speech, and occupational)  at school and is in a regular 1st grade class room this year with a fantastic parapro that helps out her and another little boy.  She loves going to school! 

She is begging us on a daily basis for a dog! She is obsessed with animals....all kinds.  I know the dog is our next purchase! (as soon as my hubby has our back yard fenced in) 

Hope is such a blessing and we love her soooo much!!! Yes, we still have CRAZY days and  YES, there is NEVER A DULL MOMENT at the Hixson home!  I love meeting new mommies of children with special needs and we have that immediate bond talking about AFO, hypotonia, strabismus, IEP's, MRI's, EEG's, heel cords, botox injections, and all of those things that used to be greek to me:)  

There is one last post I will do later tonight that will finish out Hope's story (for now)

If you have any questions......feel free to ASK!!

Hope's story-part 2

Let me pick up where I left off.....the seizure.  We were not able to get in with a pediatric neurologist until the middle of January.  We drove about 3 hours to Little Rock to the children's hospital there to see the Doctor.  They did a MRI and an EEG (to check for seizure activity)

Everything checked out fine that day in Little Rock and we were sent home and told she was just "a little behind developmentally"and she would catch up with some therapies!  Oh, he also told us that the video we had of her was not a seizure and he thought it was possibly some problems with her eye sight!  So, he referred us to a pediatric opthamologist

.  

Well, we still went home with more unanswered questions, but continued on knowing that God was in control and enjoying our sweet baby girl:)

Things get a little complicated now.....in April of 2002, we moved to South Florida and Pete started a new job at a church as the student pastor.  We were very sad to leave NW Arkansas but we felt the Lord telling us to go to Florida.....  Yay! We were 10 minutes from one of the most beautiful beaches, had an unbelievable home with a pool and could wear flip-flops 365 days a year.......who wouldn't love that?

Well, this began the hardest 9 months of our life..... Hope ended up seeing the opthamologist and needed to have surgery since she had a lazy eye.  The surgery went well, then it was off for more visits to several different specialists trying to figure out what was going on.  It was very difficult because we had to drive over an hour to all of Hope's appointment and Pete was not able to go with me to any of her visits because of his work schedule.  I did not have any kind of "support/friends" during this time while we were in Florida.  My mom would come in town as much as she could, but we were 9 hours from them as well.  

The ministry we were involved in there was really thriving, but all along I was so withdrawn from it all because I was so consumed with Hope's issues.  During those 9 months, she had pneumonia probably 3 times and was just continually sick. 

We continued to do therapy in our home with different therapist coming over weekly, but I just could not let it go until we found out EXACTLY what was going on.  I just wanted an explanation for why she was behind, why she was so sickly, why she had low muscle tone....what was the future going to look like.  

I would sit in this house in Florida and think about these things all day.  

In January of 2002, we knew we needed a change for our family and we could not continue to be in the environment that we were in.  My wonderful father offered Pete a job and by February, we were living in Woodstock AND in the neighborhood across from my parents and sister!   I really needed my mom and my sister close by after being so far away, so lonely and so worried about Hope for a year and a half.  

We got connected with some great Doctors for Hope and got her involved in some progressive therapies.  She started walking completely independently a few months before she turned 3.  

Our neurologist finally diagnosed her with Mild Cerebral Palsy when she was 2  1/2 and during that visit, he also told us we should not plan on having any more children of our own since there was a risk for a high risk pregnancy or problems again after labor.  I was only 25 at the time.  I was thinking all during that time...there is NO way I can go through this again. I loved my child soooo much, but  I've been so stressed, worried, and not slept a full night in two years, so I was really OK with this.  

CP is what I had "diagnosed" her with from the Internet when she was just a few months old. 

Once we got this info, we continued to move forward with therapy and with each month we could see her progressing in every area.  I feel like it was such a long road just to get a diagnosis but I guess they usually do not diagnose babies with CP until they are at least 2 yrs old.  

I was finally at peace with everything going on with Hope.  We were loving being back in GA, had made lots of new friends and reacquainted with old ones, we began letting our family and friends take Hope for the day or even overnight and they loved spending time with her as well.  We also had started a young couples Sunday School class at FBCW and we were always doing something with our group from there......what I'm trying to say is that things were finally seeming "normal"!!!

Then in June of 2003, shortly after Hope's 2nd Birthday.....I found out I was PREGNANT!!!! 

 

 To be continued.....................................

Almost finished....

Hope's story part 2 is almost finished...check back Wednesday morning!!

Look who started Pre-K!!

Today was Addie's 1st day of school and she was so excited about seeing all of her friends from last year (the 3 yr. old class) and meeting some new ones as well! She was all smiles today! She is such a BIG girl now! We don't have any babies in the house anymore:(

I have so much to blog about, but I'm just too tired and it's been an extremely busy weekend!! I promise to finish Hope's story in the next couple of days.  She lost another tooth tonight and we captured it's on video! I guess we will get a special visit from the tooth ferry tonight!!! 

For now, I have GOT to go to bed......

Hope's story

I realized not too long ago that I have never shared the story of our oldest daughter  (on my blog) and thought it was a good time, so here we go....this may end up being in 2 different posts!

This is going to be really long for me since I try to usually keep my posts pretty short. 

 I have been extemely blessed to meet so many new friends that have children with special needs and we share that bond:) So maybe this is for someone out there reading:

Pete and I were married in 1997 and knew we wanted to wait several years before we started having babies (considering I was only 19 years old too)

In September of 2000, we found out we were PREGNANT!!!  YAY.  We were loving where we were serving on staff at the Church at Pinnacle Hills with Pastor Ronnie Floyd as the student pastor of their second location.  I did miss being close to my family, but we made very close friends there that became like our second family!

My pregnancy went on as normal.  I gained lots of weight and Pete even gained his fair share along with me:)  I read all the books I could get my hand on as well.  We found out half-way through my pregnancy that we were having a GIRL!!  After going back and forth with names, we decided to name her HOPE......HO- for Hollie and PE for Pete.  I know it's a little cheesy, but it was perfect. Little did we know that her name would mean so much more to us later.

Five days before my due date, I went into labor and just three hours after we arrived at the hospital, Hope Savannah was born!!!  My parents jumped on a plane and arrived just a couple of hours after she was born! I had several friends in the room with me (i never miss a reason for a PAR-TAY) She was just beautiful with a head full of bright blonde hair!!!  

Everything seemed pretty normal until about 12 hours after her birth.  She was in the nursery being checked out by the nurses and we were trying to get some rest and she went into respiratory distress and had several "episodes" where she turned blue.

She did not get to come back into our hospital room.  We had to go down the hall to the nursery for the next two days to see her because she was on oxygen and several different monitors.  It was a very scary time for all of us.  

Our second night in the hospital, I woke up because I could hear the nurses out in the hallway screaming and rushing around.  Pete and I jumped up and went out there and they were rolling OUR BABY out into an ambulance!!!! WHAT??   They were taking her in an ambulance to the other hospital in town that had a great NICU because she had several more "blue spells" that night.  This is all happening at 4 o'clock in the morning!!  I had not been "discharged" from this hospital yet, but I didn't care. We were getting in the car and following that ambulance and checking on OUR baby!!!  I did get the discharge papers, so we were just a few minutes behind that ambulance.  

This was one of the scarriest moments I have ever experienced! We really did not know if she was alive or not in that ambulance in front of us.  I remember, Pete had been so strong the previous two days while being concerned about Hope, but when this happend, we really both fell apart.   We prayed all the way to the other hospital "Lord, PLEASE do not take our BABY from us."

After the full "work up"  in the NICU and meeting with the neonatologist,  they told us they were going to monitor her for several days and check everything to figure out what was going on.  We started feeling a little better and comforted by the nurses and Doctors.  They told us she was the healthiest baby in there.  

Well, I just refused to go home without taking baby Hope, so luckily they had these rooms you could rent (that were really nasty, but I didn't care) and they were on the top floor of the hospital and they gave us a pager and if ANYTHING came up they would page us.  We only lived about 10 miles from this hospital but I just could not bear to go home and leave her there.  

I remember one day, during the 7 nights we were there, I agreed to go to the Blimpie with my mom and I could not even stand to be out of the hospital building knowing she was still in there.

They did every test possible on Hope and slowly started weaning her off of the oxygen. Every test came back "normal".  Our last night in the hospital, we were admitted into a room with her and the only machine that she was on was an apnea monitor!!  We had to go through a CPR class before we were discharged, then the following day, we were send home with our sweet baby.  

Still confused by everything, we had NO answers.  We knew God was in control and had prayed specifically that she would be healed.  I was very uneasy when at home with her alone and scared she would stop breathing.  I did not let her out of my sight.  They let her come off the apnea monitor after 3 months, but we were still not comfortable away from her. 

Things seemed fine for about the first five months or so.  I remember thinking around the six month mark at "something" just was not right!! She was thriving but at the time I didn't know these "terms" then, but she had very low muscle tone.  At eight months, she was still not sitting up alone and was just a "floppy baby."    

I started doing my own research on our very slow dial up internet at the time and I had diagnosed her myself but didn't tell anyone except for Pete. I would take her to the pediatrician and she would just say "well everything checked out fine" at the hospital and I would go home with more questions!

On Christmas day of 2001, we were video taping our day at home and I captured something wild on video.  Hope was having a seizure!!!  This was another very scary day.  I waited until the following day and called my pediatritian and told her I had to see some kind of specialist VERY SOON. 

......to be continued!!

We are counting down again...

As most of our friends know, we are completely obsessed with the FAIR!! We need to save up now because last year we were there like four of the nights that it was in town.  I don't know what it is.....maybe the food, rides, the beginning of cooler weather, the mullets, or games that Pete will play in order to win our girls the GIANT stuffed animals!  Maybe just a little bit of it all!!  

So, is anyone else out there feeling the same excitement as me?

Life with Girls!!

You can stand under my umbrella!!!!

Yes, my husband is a pastor.  Yes, he has done lots of funerals.  Yes, I will occasionally go with him.  I'm very glad he was not asked to help out with this one:

Corpse left upright for 3 day wake.

I love cupcakes!

Yesterday before we left Nashville, we made a stop at Gigi's cupcakes.  I  wonder if there is a gourmet cupcake place in the Atlanta area......Anyways, we left with 3 wedding cake cupcakes and 3 Midnight Magic Chocolate Chips, and a couple of rocky road cupcakes.  I shared them with my sister and my sis-in-law, so they are all gone now and I'm wanting more!!

New Friends!

Pete and I were able to sneak away Sunday after church and head to Nashville and spend some time with Pete and Brandi Wilson. We just loved them! They such a great couple!! We went their service on Sunday night which was great and had dinner.  Check out their blogs and if you are in the Nashville area....check out their church.  

Time at the ranch....

Friday night and Saturday were packed with fun at our friend's ranch in the mountains.  Our family was pretty adventurous (at least for us) this weekend.  We rode horses, went fishing and caught lots of fish.  Addie caught like seven and Hope caught two!! Hope was too interested in watching the crickets that we were using as bait!! No, I was not touching the bait.  We left that for the boys!!  I took a ton of pictures but did not want to bore you guys with the 140 picts I took over the weekend! For more pictures click HERE

Addie dressed appropriately for the weekend! Yes, she got herself dressed this way before we left Atlanta!

Jake, Dad and Pete

Deanna and I.....our horses were not getting along!! 

Hope riding the horse that she LOVED!

Hope fishing!

Cousins:)

Addie and Papa!

Me and the girls

Deanna and I.....we have a redneck side!

Hope and Mike 

Happy for the weekend!!!

I'm thrilled that we had a great 1st week of school and now we are off to spend some time with my sister that has not been in the state of GA for the ENTIRE summer....I can't really remember what she looks like!! AND my parents......we are heading up to some friends' ranch for the night.  Addie asked me if it was like the ranch dressing!!!  Ha! Ha!

Anyways..........until Monday!

The Return of Thursday 13!!!

1.  I can't believe school started and that I have a 1st grader.

2.  It's really hard adjusting back to the schedule.....i like being lazy in the summer.

3.  Pete and I have spent WAY too much time on Facebook this week.  I love catching up with friends I have not seen or talked to in 10 years.

4.  We have an exciting weekend planned that I'm looking forward to.  

5.  I started the Twilight book and I'm obsessed!  I see now what the big deal was all about.

6.  I worked out yesterday for the first time in 3 months.....my legs hurt:(

7.  We have a great church.  I LOVE it. Everyone. Everything.  Especially the pastor!!

8.  We are loving the Olympics.

9.  Hope is obsessed with school. 

10.  There is a great sale going on at Pier 1.  I have been there twice this week.....check it out if you need things for your home.  75% OFF 

11.  Hope still wants a dog, but I really want to fence our yard in before we get one.    

12.  Tonight is "Date Night"  WOO-HOO.  

13.  Addie still has her "cast" on for another week.  She loves when people ask her what happened!  

I'm trying out the Mr. Linky thing today, so join in on the Thursday 13!! Have a happy day:)

I will never be hungry again...

Tonight, we had dinner at the home of our friends Alton & Ozell Robins.  Ozell just turned 90 last week. She's an incredible cook!  We always enjoy our time with this precious family.  They have been at Vinings Lake since the very beginning....actually before it was VL and they have been so supportive of all the changes that have taken place over the last 2 years.  

She makes breakfast for Pete about once a month but it is always a special treat for us to have dinner there.  It's like Cracker Barrel on steroids!!! 

Check out Pete's blog

He just uploaded a video of the girls that was really cute.  

Check it our HERE

Back To School.....already!

Today was Hope's 1st day back and I can't believe she is in 1st grade!!  The whole family took her this morning and we just LOVE her new teacher, which also happens to be one of our neighbors!! We made the decision (after much prayer and counsel) to keep her at the same school we have been in for the past 2 years instead of private school.  On the way there this morning, Pete and I were talking about how good we felt about this decision and were excited about this school year.  We have really made some connections and are starting to know so many people there now.  Sometimes you want to go....where everybody knows your name!!! And yes, they all know Hope!!  

After getting her all settled into her classroom, we headed out to our favorite place......WAFFLE HOUSE!  Can you think of a better way to start the school year?

Good times!

It was SO great to be at VL this morning!!  You can tell school is starting and everyone is back from their vacations!  I still can't believe school starts tomorrow.  Pete just ran out....yes, at 11:30 pm to get a few school supplies that I forgot to get!! Oops!  Back to this morning, Pete began a new series called "Seasons" and it was GREAT!!  It's going to be an awesome 4 weeks!!  I helped out in Creation Land (our preschool environment)  today for a while and it is so cool that both of my kids came home today knowing their Bible verse and quoting it over and over and that Addie told me the entire story about Moses and the Burning Bush! I guess it does help that she is there for 2 services and gets to hear it twice, but I'm still proud of them.  

Tonight, we went over to my dad's church for a very funny thing they did there called "laugh all night" and YES, we did laugh the entire time........

Cody and Katie did such a fantastic job with the Lit Conference! We really enjoyed being there and helping out!!!!  Here are a few pictures from the weekend!  I can't believe our summer has come to a close:(  A new SEASON is beginning!!!!! 

Pete and Brian......being Pete & Brian!!

Hopie sharing pasta with Matthew (Katie's bro)

The "new Jarrett"  

Ellen and Ads!

Donna (Katie's mama) and Hopie!!

Seth Condrey and his sweet wife....he did a great job leading worship

The crew waiting to eat dinner!

The Lit conference after hours....

This was our last night after the conference....Doug just HAS to dance.  It was classic. On top of that he and his wife (Melanie) took a run through the water fountains afterwards....fully dressed!! We LOVE the "Awesome Dawson Duo!"  

Of course we can go to the beach thanks to........

SARAN WRAP!!!  Her broken shoulder has not slowed us down too much!! We stopped at the drug store and bought some saran wrap and she splashed around a little at the edge of the water and has herself a great little time!!

I decided this morning that we were entirely too close to a beach to not go, so while Pete was working, we jumped in the car and spent the day at Ponte Vedra Beach!  The girls have 2 huge buckets of seashells to bring home!! 

Random Thoughts on Thursday!

Here we are in Jacksonville, Fl for the Lit Conference! We arrrived safely last night just in time (barely) for Pete to speak to a group of students at a church here in the area.  Like any good Pastor's wife, I dropped him off at the church and headed to the hotel, got checked in and took the kids out for sushi!!! Yes, usually I would stick around BUT we had been in the car for 5 hours!! I really am a supportive wife:)  

I'm excited to have my sweet friend, Ellen, here with us this weekend helping with the girls so I can go to the conference!

Last night, the girls were in thier room with Ellen and I had a friend of mine, Melanie hanging out in my room and around 11pm, the loudest sirens started going off in the room and on the hallways saying there was an emergency and we needed to evacuate!!!  So, I run across the hallway and grab the girls and we proceed to RUN while CARRYING the kids (40 and 50 lbs) down 8 flights of stairs.  Yes....you know where this is going.  Us along with all the other people staying on the 8th floor get to the bottom floor and it was a FALSE ALARM!  So, that was our entertainment for the evening!  I AM glad it was not a true emergency.

We are excited to be here for the conference and are praying for all the students that will be here over the next couple of days!

I spent the beginning of the week getting Hope ready to go back to SCHOOL!! I can't believe it's time:(  She is excited for Monday morning!!

I'm sitting here watching my husband iron a T-shirt! I don't even iron t-shirts!!  He will look very pressed!! By the way, it does take him longer than me to get ready!! I guess when you are that good lookin' you've got to spend extra time primping!!  Gotta love him!!

 Ok, anyways, I'm sure I will have some pictures to follow!!  What's a post without pictures?  

Catalyst Road Trip Comes To Vinings Lake!

The girls thought this was too cool......Check out Pete's blog for more!

Dinner

After a full day of fun in the sun on Saturday, Pete and I went out to dinner.  We walked into the restaurant and the power went out from the huge storm that followed us down I-75...there were lots of candles in the restaurant and they didn't skip a beat. 

Oh, I failed to mention that Pete started the day with fixing my favorite breakfast for me and all of our friends before we left for the lake...FRENCH TOAST!! He has my brother-in-law , Jake' secret recipe!!  He's so good to me......

Fun at the Lake!!

Saturday was a great day to be out on the lake!  I surprised Pete and rented a boat for the day with some friends for his anniversary gift! Poor little Addie couldn't come along with us since she has a cast on her arm, so mimommy and papa spent the day with her!  TRUST me...she's fine.  Hope went with us and did GREAT! She had never been swimming in the lake so she thought that was pretty cool!  She was soooo good!  Pete is still sore from Brian trying to "hurt" him while he was tubing!!!  I got a little freaked out when we were on our way back to the marina and it started lightening!! We can't wait to go back..........

Dominican Republic Reunion!!

Friday night we had a GREAT time getting back together with our team that went to the DR this past April for a mission trip.  We enjoyed some incredible authentic mexican cuisine and some good laughs.........

American Girl Party!

On Thursday I took the girls to my niece, Katie's 10th birthday party at American Girl.  It was such a cute party.  The girls took their dolls, played games, had the dolls hair fixed in the salon, made outfits for the dolls, had dinner then the birthday cake!!  It was the ultimate girly party!!

Happy 11 years!

August 2nd 1997, I married my best friend! Happy Anniversary to us! I can't wait to spend another 75 years+ with you Peter John Lawrence Hixson. I love you.......................

How to weigh yourself.....

We've had it all wrong!

Confessions of a stay at home mommy...

I am a CLEAN freak!! It's bad.  My car, every room of my house (including closets and under the beds) and even the garage HAS to be clean.  I really thought it would get better and I would relax a little after having Hope....nothing changed.  Then, I had Addie....it only got worse.  It puts me in a bad mood to have rooms NOT CLEAN!! Well, it's rubbed off on someone else.......

I come from a long line of clean freaks! Let's not even go into the candle obsession...OK- I will really quick.  I finally bought the candle Anthropologie burns in their stores all the time.....the Capri Blue candle in the volcano scent! It smells wonderful!! It's up there with Pacifica's Mexican Cocoa.

Anyone else out there have cleaning issues?