Things are going well in our world.

Jaden in doing very well and he had a cardiology appointment a few weeks ago. His Dr. said that things looked very good however, since he had a Fenestration done at his surgery we may have to go in and close it when he is around 7. So 3 years from now. Jaden is going to preschool 4 days a week and he loves it. He is doing well but definitely playing catch up.

Ethan is a 3rd grader this year. He is extremely smart and pretty much all of his academics comes very simple for him. He is competitively swimming again this year and has his first meet in 2 weeks. He is my compassionate one and is always making sure everybody is happy. He is so sweet.

Ashley is my big 5th grader this year. She has grown up so fast I just can't believe it. She is doing well in school as well and is preparing for the talent show where she will do a solo singing & tap performance and then she will do a duet gymnastics performance with her good friend Tina. She is playing the flute this year in school and loves it.

Our business is still growing at a nice a steady pace. We have added to our trucking business a job which runs out of the cities and we will start that officially Dec. 5th. We will put on 4 trucks with 7 drivers and a manager. This will be an exciting new adventure to add to our fleet. We are also in the process of trying to buy a mechanic shop. We have been leasing where we are at over the last few years and are now ready to take that next step of expansion. We have a building we really want but are working through the numbers to see if we will be able to purchase it.

That is pretty much all for this update.

Time

Time just slips right by use each day. It seems like the months just fade away. I have been asked by a few of you to update and I just keep forgetting to get on here. When we are in the hospital I update so much and pour my heart and soul into the posts that once I am home I just don't have the energy to update anymore. Besides that I am not a huge fan of the computer. So I do apologize and time slips by so fast and then I realize I need to get on here.

Things are going very well for us. After spring break Jaden started preschool and he loved it. His last day was last Thursday. He had so much fun that the days he didn't go he would beg to go. He really needed that outlet. Of course since he had been homebound most of his life, he got pretty sick a few times just adapting to all of the other kids bugs. His health is very well and we are looking forward to a more "normalized" little kids lifestyle for me. Hopefully no more homebound, no more surgeries and normal kids bugs in his body. We continue to use Young Living Essential Oils on him and the rest of our family to keep us all feeling great.

Ashley & Ethan are done with school on Friday. That will make Ashley a 5th grader and Ethan a 3rd grader next year. They have grown up so fast. Ashley is such a loving sister to Jaden and she takes care of him all of time. It is so sweet to watch. She still is doing dance & gymnastics and loves them both. Ethan is the most compassionate child I have ever seen. His heart is huge and he loves with it all. He is still swimming and also does boy tap/hip hop as well as gymnastics. Jaden is doing his therapy horseback riding this spring and has a few classes left. He will do a community ed. class this summer and it will be a sports sampler. His first activity. It will be fun to see. He has been asking though all of the time when he gets to dance with Ethan. Hopefully in the fall we can put him in a class to do some tap/hip hop.

This summer we are very busy. We will be going to Young Living Convention in Utah and then on the CA where we will drive the coast from San Fran to San Diego. We are very excited for that. We will take the kids to Santa Barbara and show them where we went to college and where daddy proposed to me. They will get to meet Sal's family some for the very first time. Ashley also will have a gymnastics camp the end of July and then we will go camping around MN during the summer as well as some boating.

Work is up and down but overall pretty consistent and busy. We are looking into buying a building to move the shop to as right now we are leasing. We have found a place that we really like but we will see what happens in the next few weeks.

Other then that life is great and GOD has provided much love for our family and we thank Him each and every day for what He has provided.

It's a white day out today! Now this is what Minnesota is supposed to be like. I LOVE THE SNOW. I remember those days as a little kid when there was so much snow and things were cancelled. How fun.

Things have been well in our house. We have been staying well until this weekend. Ethan got flu like symptoms and Jaden had a bad cold that as always turned into Croup. We use Young Living Essential Oils in our house and I don't know how we ever lived without them. Ethan's symptoms lasted a day and a half. I gave him an influenza essentail oil bath and that helped him recover completely. When Jaden gets Croup he has it for at least 3 days without medication. With medication it is 1-2 days. With the oils it is 1 day. It is so amazing how powerful they are. When I have to decide between chemical filled medication or God's nature "oils" I definitly choose the oils. So Jaden is crazy wild again today and Ethan stayed home just to regain energy back fully and rest. What a great day to stay home.

Sal and his dad went to California last week to see his family. He had a great time and saw his grandma who just turned 100 a few days ago.

That's it here. Hope you are all doing well.

Love, Steph

Things are going well in our house overall. Jaden is doing very well as far as his heart and health goes. We are slowing bringing him to more close up contact places to get his immune system working but not on overload. Right now he is fighting a pretty yucky cold but we are loading him up with Essentail Oils and the cold is not coming on full strength.

We are having therapist come 4 days a week to work with Jaden. We have had a lot of emotional issues with the kids. Mostly Jaden of course. One of his therapist works 100% just on his emotional issues and well being. We still have a very long road ahead of us with dealing with the emotional aspects. We have to find a lot of happy mediums for all of us.

Ash and Ethan are doing well in school and they have gotten a lot more close to their normal state prior to surgery. It will all take time. Thats it for now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and got lots to eat. We all went to moms house and then played a games after eating our feast. It was a great time and much to be thankful for. Everyone had a good time. It was a little much for Jaden. When we got home and later tried to put him to bed it was a struggle. He woke up on and off most of the night just crying. I am guessing he is just having a lot of nightmares and trying to cope with it all mentally.

His appointment with Chip went well. We did not do any blood work or an Echo. I was quite surprised by that. Chip said he sounded and looked good and that we didn't need to see him again until Jaden turns 4. Thats far out especially not having an echo but I guess it should be fine. We are watching all other areas with Jaden to see if anything else comes up.

Today we all went with mom, Jose and Candise to the Christmas tree farm we go to every year and cut down a tree. It was a lot of fun and we had perfect weather. i will try to get some pictures up.

Well better go and finish dinner.

Love to all!

How the days fly by. We will have been home for a week tomorrow already. We are all trying to regroup and get back to a more normal life. Ethan is still having some issues with lots of whining and break downs. Getting into a little trouble in school as well. But we are trying to remain patient with him and work through it. Ashley is having a lot of fun with Jaden and they are always hanging out together. Sal is trying to get caught up from all of the work he missed and he is exhausted. I have a very loud to do list that I am slowly catching up with.

Jaden has had lots going on. Home Care came Monday and today. Speech-Jessie & OT-Janelle from the school district came together bearing gifts for Jaden on Tuesday. Lana a family friend came on Tuesday after Jessie & Janelle left. Jaden had his Pediatrician check up Tuesday afternoon. Everything looked good as far as Cardiac was concerned. But Dr. Kulus felt Jadens stomach because he had been saying his tummy hurt and I told Dr. Kulus he has been complaining about that since a few weeks before the surgery. She thought his Liver felt enlarged. So we are having an ultrasound tomorrow morning to check it out. Then next week when we go and see Chip, the Cardiologist, he is going to do extra blood work to check on that. So hopefully nothing bad comes of this as he has gone through so much already.

I am still working on making time to upload pictures onto my computer from the camera and then on to the blog. That will come soon I hope.

We got home right after the kids got home from school yesterday and we surprised them. The second we walked in the door Ethan broke down and sobbed. I had to hold him on my lap for a long time. It was as if he was holding it all in until the second we were home and safe. He then continued to hug me all night long. He went to touch one of Jadens "war wounds" and Jaden said no and started crying so then Ethan started crying because he felt so bad for Jaden. He told me he loved me about 10 times last night and said I was the best mom in the world a few times as well. Ashley just sat by Jaden very quietly through out the night. Sal had surprised us all with some gifts to open. So we had a very good time with each other last night and we look forward to this weekend to just hang out.

Today Jaden has been very mellow and quiet. A Home Care nurse came this morning and Jaden was very scared of her coming near him. We worked through it very slowly and he did just fine. His oxygen was at 91. Awesome. Then at naptime he was crying and scared to go to bed. So I had to hold him, then lay beside him touching him the whole time. Then once he was asleep I could leave the room.

He does not want to change clothes at all and wants to keep his zip up short zipped up all of the way. It is so sad how he is so worried about his chest. It will take time I know but it is just sad to see him have to go through all of this.