January 11th- Natalie Gets Me in the Eye!

At 3:00AM I brought Natalie into our bedroom and because she was very restless and fussy. She was teething had having a difficult time sleeping. I laid her down next to me and she sat up and suddenly brought her head down again real fast right on top of my eye. Ouch. It took about a 10-14 days for it to heal.

Getting Towed!

Oh, man! So the alternator went out on our mini-van without any warning. I was in North Tustin on January 2nd having lunch with a friend when I had to call AAA and Ryan to let them know that I had to make an emergency stop in a shopping center with the three girls because our car was not going to be running any longer.

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013!

Setting them free!

I had purchased two .13 cent Comet goldfish for Ava and Charlotte when I was 9-months pregnant with Natalie.  To be honest I had impulsively purchased them in early November of 2013 as a form of entertainment for them. At 9-months pregnant I was pretty tired already and taking it easy and any form of quite entertainment for them was much appreciated.  I was running out of ideas to keep my 3 year old and 1 year old amused at home the last few weeks. These two little goldfish were still alive and healthy 13months later when we moved. With all the commotion of everything going on I told Ava we were going to set the little goldfish free in the school pond where they would have more room to swim and could be with their other fish friends. Ava and Charlotte were a little reluctant at first but quickly warmed up to the idea. They were too cute releasing their goldfish to the school pond so I of course had to take a few pics.

                                                            Holding our two fish.

Dec 14th, 2013- Moving Day!

Dec 14th, 2013- Moving Day!

Okay, so I know it's crazy but we moved the day after Ryan was discharged from Hoag. We had been packing for the last two months and had hired movers weeks before. I also was encouraging Ryan to hold off another week from moving, but he promised he would take it easy and wanted to go ahead with the moving plans. With the help of our awesome brothers, friends and movers we moved! Ten days before Christmas we were in our new home. We love our new place and are so thankful for everyone's help in taking care of Ryan and also helping us with our girls and moving all our boxes. It's been slow going unpacking and it took about another week to go back to our old apartment and pick up the last of the items and also doing last minute routine clean-up work. We are loving our new place and the girls now all have so much more room to play and best of all they can make all the noise they want and we aren't bothering any downstairs neighbors. Awesomeness!

There are three children in car seats in this packed mini-van. Can you spot them? LOL.

I made several of these trips with the kids the week after we had moved from our old apartment.
They were really good about it all and having a DVD player in the car actually really helped while I finagled the last of the awkward sized items into the mini-van.

Dec 11, 2013- Natalie Starts Walking

                                                           Natalie Started Walking Dec 11, 2013
                                                                     12 mo and 20 days old

I took these photos moments after Natalie started walking. The girls and I had been staying at my mother's home in Laguna Niguel while Ryan was at Mission Hospital. Ryan was in ICU during this time and I was getting ready to go to the hospital. My mother and I were in her kitchen when Natalie took her first steps walking towards Grandma. I did take video! Yay! Thank goodness for awesome cell phone technology. I was able to show Ryan the video of Natalie at the hospital. She's had been pretty steady standing for about a month or longer, but she was very cautious and wasn't quite ready to take more than two steps until this day. I took a few more photos of her playing later on at Grandma's house. It was also during this time that we officially stopped nursing her as well. We were pretty much done anyway, but with me being away at the hospital for so many hours she got more use to cow's whole milk.  Hurray for Natalie and her walking!

Ryan's Hospitalization

Ryan's Hospitalization 

Friends came to visit him at Mission Hospital.

This was an awesome gesture from his friends and really cheered him up.

My poor husband had the misfortune of experiencing a spontaneous pulmonary embolism. We are all very fortunate and especially blessed that he is recuperating well and that he is wonderful spirits. He initially started having some symptoms of tiredness and breathlessness when we were doing our Christmas photos on December 8th. We went to Urgent Care at 8:00 AM on Monday December 9th and were told he had pneumonia by the doctor. The doctor misdiagnosed him and we called the doctor again after he started feeling worse. We went straight to Mission Viejo ER after he started experiencing tachycardia and could not catch his breath to breath up getting up from his office chair. I drove him to the hospital and he was immediately triaged. We we arrived at the hospital his heart rate was at 167 beats per minute in a sitting position and was having labored breathing. The nurses and doctors started doing tests right away and tried to get his breathing under control and his heart rate. It took several days to get his heart rate back down to a normal range of 92 beats per minute. In the ER he had a CTSCAN done that confirmed he had a large pulmonary emboli in both lungs that had a starburst effect. His left lung was particulary effected and he also experienced a pulmonary infarction. Pulmonary embolisms are not something that happen to people under 40 years old. No one really knows why this happened to Ryan, but we are hoping that we will find out after having many tests conducted. We are so very fortunate that he has come out of this ordeal alright; many times this is sadly not the case with pulmonary embolisms. For now Ryan has gone to see his general physician, hematologist, pulmonalogist, and he also goes to a Coumadin Clinic to get his blood tested. He will be having therapeautic coumadin treatment for the next six months. Coumadin is a blood thinner and when given as a therapy is suppose to help break up any blood clots that the patient has over a period of weeks and months. There is very little risk that the patient will experience another embolism while they are on blood thinners. But being on blood thinners is also serious business and one has to be very careful with the types of vitamin K foods they eat and be careful not to risk any injuries that would make it difficult to stop bleeding. Ryan's lungs have been healing well too and I think a lot of it probably has to do with him being a younger patient. He was very breathless in the begining and tired very easily. Now, he can go on long walks and not get so breathless and doesn't get tired as quickly.

The photos I have posted are with Ryan's permission and are to basically show what happened to him and to help make this a teachable opportunity to our friends and loved ones. The initial photos were taken at Mission Viejo's Hospital ICU.  Ryan was in ICU to help control his heart rate (too high before), labored breathing, and also to monitor his reactions to the strong blood thinners that they administered. After several days he was stabilized and transferred to Hoag Hospital in Irvine. Our insurance network is through Hoag. Come June we should have a full recovery for Ryan and maybe even know why this happened to him so that maybe we can help prevent this from happening again.

We count our blessings everyday for all the simple things that matter: family. I can not bear the thought of having the loss of my husband. Just typing this practically paralyzes me. I am grateful and know that I am blessed to have him. I do not take that for granted. We appreciated everyone's  prayers and help and heart felt sentiments during that tough time. When something like this can change your life in an instant, you definitely have a little bit more of a wake up call as to making the most of your life. We only have one life to live, let's make it a good one and show those we care about how much they mean to us and love them.

                                          Ambulance transferring Ryan from Mission to Hoag.

                                                                   Hoag Hospital in Irvine.

Taking Our Christmas Photos - Dec 8, 2013

We took our annual Christmas family photos this year at the Laguna Niguel Regional Park. It was a nice fall day and we had a good time walking around the lake to our destination at the bridge. The girls had a fun time running around and playing with fallen leaves. We tried to capture their enjoyment.