A little of This and That of Mr. "P"

Trying a Blueberry Puff for the first time! Do you think he liked it??

Halloween 2009
We had Baxter, a Witch, and a Cow!! They got a Ton of Candy and had fun Trick or Treating with there Cousins a motorcycle rider, a dancer, and a cowgirl!!

Schnepf Farms 2009

I'm having a love/hate realationship with my blog. So here goes the lastest in our lives. We have finally gotten settled, well ok somewhat settled into our new house. I never realized how much work goes into moving and then getting things they way you want them(if that ever truly happens.) Justin gets irritated with me because I am constantly rearanging. We still have a ton of things to do and slowly but surely we are checking them off the list.

Houston is again back in preschool which started in August. He loves his preschool and learns so much. He just had his 5th Birthday and started is 1st year of Tee-Ball and his loving every minute of it. Houston's team is the Diamondbacks which he was very excited about.

Ashlyn who keeps me totally on my toes!! Is in to everything, loves to climb and her favorite words are "can you and I dont want to". Ash could seriously take 6 baths a day and still some how find a way to get DIRTY!! She loves to pick out what she is going to wear from her clothes to shoes and wait don't forget the hair bow(even though they don't stay in very long). She is very strong willed and gives Houston a run for his money.

Piercen is doing really well! He his sitting up, babbling, spitting, and starting to scoot around. He loves to scream and be in the center of all the comotion. Piercen passed his Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech evaluations, we fought for him to be excepted into the early intervention program, they come to our home and follow him once a week. Irene is the lady that comes weekly and she is so impressed with what Piercen is doing. We truly do have a miracle baby and our so very blessed.

Piercen at 5 months. He is now 13.3 lbs and 23 inches long. He is doing so good, he is now gooing,smiling, following people when the talk to him, rolling from his belly to his tummy and of course smiling. Piercen is also trying to sit up. We can not believe how good he is doing. And we are truly thankful for this. I took Piercen back to the neurosurgeon and he did not see anything wrong with his spine or his ventricles in his head are not getting any bigger, he said that he his doing great and will continue to check his progress for awhile. We are so relived that we have such great news.


I woke up one morning to find Ashlyn in bed with her brother! I had to laugh she had her bottle and her packer blankie. Hope Piercen was happy because Ashlyn sure was!!

My brother in law will kill me! Tommy and I have our difference's on the Packers and the Cowboys. This is Cole my nephew wearing nothing but the best! I guess this is what happens when you babysit.

Another trip to Pinetop. We love to go as much as we can during the summer. It is so nice to get away from the the heat. The kids love to play outside, get dirty, eat, and go fishing.

Justin and I took Houston and Our nephews Austin and Tyler to a Diamonbacks game about a month ago.

4th of July and another trip to Aunt Julie's in Pinetop. This year was unlike the years past we missed Keith & Kristen's family and also Michael and Emily's family. The kids and fun and we celebrated Justin's 31st birthday. Happy Birthday Justin

My little ball player

Justin's Aunt Julie passed away on July 9th. She had a stroke at the end of May and never fully recovered. We will all miss her so much. She was more like a grandmother to us and espically to our kids. She was an amazing lady and we will never forget her.

Oh how I am so bad about keeping this up! Piercen turned 4 months old on Saturday-yeah 4 months and I just can't even believe it. As I look back on what a rough start our tiny man had and all the challenges he and our family went through, we are just so blessed to have him in our lives. He is becoming more alert now, he loves to be talked to and his smiling at us. Houston and Ashlyn are so good with him and have been since we brought him home. I was a little nervous about how Ashlyn was going to react but she has been such a big help. They love to watch everything that we do with him, they love to hold and kiss him and love when he looks at them when they talk. Ashlyn always has to come tell me when Piercen is crying(as if we can't hear him). We took him in for his 4 month check up on Monday and he is now 11lbs.9 oz. Dr. Saba asked me if we put lead in his pants as he gained 2lbs. in 1 month.!! He is liking his swing alot now and sleeps in there for a long time, he is still not sleeping through the night but is sleeping for longer periods now. Today we had an appt. with the nerosurgeon to have him look at his latest head ultrasound and he want's to do another one and also do an x-ray of his spinal cord. He told me not to worry that it is done for precationary measures. As a mother it is hard to not worry about your baby, but for my sanity I am trying not to. I belive that GOD is on or side when it comes to this little guy, he has already done so much for him. We are waiting for the radiolgy office to call us with an appointment and are hoping that we can see him at the beginning of the week. And as always please pray that everything comes back well.
And I will post some new pictures as soon as I can.

Uncle Michael comes to visit!
We were all SO excited to see Uncle Michael,and we were wishing that Aunt Emma and the boys could have come to. It was a last minute thing as Aunt Julie had a stroke and was in the Nero ICU. She is doing better day by day and has had to go to a nursing home and now into a group home. We are all hoping that she will get stronger and get to go home eventually. We had a good time with Michael and wish that they would be a little closer. We hope we see them soon.

Better late than Never!
Ashlyn turned 2 years old on the 29th of May. I cant even beleive how fast the time goes. Ashlyn was so excited about her many pairs of shoes she got this year. She loves shoes and thinks everybody shoes are hers. She has quite the vocabulary we can't believe how much she is talking and what actually comes out of her mouth. She has a mind of her own and her favorite saying is "I do it". She is so in love with her baby brother, she loves to talk to him and love on him. She has brought so much spunk into our lifes. We love you sassy girl! Happy Birthday.
And to Shelby our niece Happy 8th Birthday! Thank you for being such a sweet girl and being so good to the kids. She is truly a sweet girl have a great year

Obsessed

Houston's 1st outting to the batting Cages. Houston is turning into a baseball freak. My dad and Houston are going to the D-backs games all the time and Houston has decided that Nana's ticket his now his ticket. He is truly a diamondback fan he knows all the players names, numbers and even the positions that they play! And when there not at the game he is watching some sort of baseball or softball on tv, his favorite stations are Sportscenter and Fox Sports Arizona. At 4 years old he sleeps,eats and dreams baseball.

Piercen is Home!! We are so excited and have waited so long for this day to finally happen(53 days)! We brought our baby boy home last night. And I have to say it was bitter sweet to leave St. Joe's Hospital we have gotten to know his doctors and nurses so well, we are truly going to miss them and will never forget what they did for our tiny man. After almost three months of going back and fourth to the hospital we are so blessed to finally not have to do this anymore(except to visit)we are getting our lives back. And I want to thank everyone again for all of your continued support as we went through this journey we again could have never done this with out all of you!!

Our Last weeks in the Hospital

As the doctors warned us in the beginning that Piercen's progress would be a roller coaster ride and for the first time since he was born we have come to this. As I posted before the nurse practitioner said that Piercen may get to come home on Wednesday and his feeding tube was taken out, well the feeding tube is back in as of yesterday and he will not get to come home tomorrow.:( The doctors are not satisfied at how much he is eating on his own and want him to gain wait, not loose it They ran a bunch of test on him this morning to check is blood levels to see if maybe he needed another blood transfusion, which at this point his blood levels are good and he will not need a transfusion. They also did another brain scan and that appears to still be getting smaller, this of course is great news. So as we got some bad news we also got good news too, and we are thankful for this. Our tiny man is now 6lbs 1oz!!! As I look back to the day he was born it seems like he has been in our lives for such a short time, but then as I am living it it feels like an eternity. My due date was April 12th so we would have not even gotten to meet him yet, and I am glad that the worst part of it is over. We have gotten this far and I know we will make it the rest of the way.
Thanks for continuing to watch his progress :)

Justin and Houston went camping this weekend, and Ashlyn and I stayed at my mom and dad's house, so I decided that it was time for Ashlyn to meet her little brother. She had to check him out his eyes,nose, mouth, feet and hands. She is going to be quite the helper she insisted on helping me feed him his bottle. Piercen also got his feeding tube out!! He his now tubeless and we are so excited about this. When I went up this morning the nurse practiconer came in and said they were doing a hearing test, (which he passed) and they were going to do another brain scan on Tuesday and if everything looks good----- they may send him home on Wednesday!!! I can't believe that after all this time we are now talking about bringing our tiny man home. I have to admit that I am a little nervous about bringing him home. We will have to take some classes and be CPR certified before they will discharge him, with alot of reasurement they would not send hom home until he his completly ready. Our lives are about to get back to "normal" with our entire family at home and I can't wait for that. We have been through so much and I am defintly ready for this. We will keep you posted as to when Piercen will be home. Thank you so much for all the thoughts and prayers, please continue to pray for him as we still have a long journey ahead. ( I will post some new pictures of him as soon as I get a few minutes)

With great surprise Piercen has moved to the ICU Annex, which is one step closer to going home. I was shocked yesterday morning when I called to see how Piercen's night had gone they told me they moved him to the annex at 7:00 am. It is alot quiter here, he has his own room which is very nice. Today is the 40th day that he has been in the hospital, and I am soooo ready for him to be home it feels like the drive (1 hour there and 1 hour back) is getting longer and longer each day. The nurse told me last night that if his feedings continue to go well that we will start talking about discharge instructions. I am so excited,but try not to get my hopes up to much as it could still be a while before that BIG day. He his gaining weight, Sunday he was 5lbs11oz, and his getting a double chin!! I finally had to take his preemie clothes home and bring is newborn clothes up. Piercen is also staying up more on Monday night he was awake the whole time I was there looking around and was really checking his mommy out. We have our CPR class next Wednesday so hopefully soon after he will be home. Please continue to pray that he can get his suck,swallow, and breath routine down.

Piercen had his brain scan yesterday and the doctor said that it appears to be getting smaller and that the bleeding has stopped!! They will not continue to do anymore scans weekly,they will do one more before he gets ready to come home. Piercen is still having problems with his feedings the doctor said he is still hopeful that he will pick it up with time. If he does not they will start with a speech therapist and from there they will do a feed study to see if maybe his food is going down the wrong tube, if so they said they thicken his food to either a honey or cereal consistancy, and that it will correct it self. This is Piercen's last hurdle that he has to overcome before he gets to come home, they say it could be days or weeks it is up to him and they are not going to push him. We are getting anxious for our tiny man to come home and "join"our lives here at home. He is such a little fighter and is know 5lbs 6ounces, he is getting to be such a "big boy".

Today was another great day for Piercen!!
He his more alert and rooting as it gets close to his feedings, he took two and half bottles today! His only test for this next week is his weekly brain scan, this is scheduled for Thursday. Please pray that his little brain bleed has not gotten any bigger and that it is draining. I will post when we know the results.
Thanks again for keeping him in your prayers!

Piercen is 1 month old!!
As I sit and look back at the begining I can't believe that he his a month old. The stuggles that he has gone through,the machines that he was on, the what ifs that went through our minds-was our baby boy even going to make it? I am so thankful that those days our over! I know now that my tiny man will get to come home, when we don't know. We have been so blessed to have such great doctors, nurses, family and friends that have gotten us through each and every day. We could have never gotten through this journey with out all of your thoughts,prayers and support.

His little feet!! Don't they look big for a preemie?

When my Mom and I went to see Piercen last week I was surprised to find out that they were moving him to intermidiate! When we finally got settled Adriana the nurse asked me if I wanted to give him his first bath-so here are some pictures of him. Piercen was not to sure about his bath,but like Nana said you better get use to them because when you get home you will get one daily.