Have a Merry Christmas

I'm no professional photographer but here are some pictures I took for Christmas. Its just plain hard to get both kids to smile at the same time. Chuwy was a great sport and both kids loved having him as part of the fun.

BIG kiss!

And another kiss. As you can see Eric loves the kisses his sister gives

And some serious shots too

We pray you have a Merry Christmas and in case we don't have the chance to update the blog again before Christmas we will be home from Arizona on Dec. 29th and hopefully will have lots more pictures to share.

Merry Christmas from Greg, Linda, Kayla and Eric

a little taste of what my eyes see each day

this was taken from my back porch view. Notice our cow laying next to the horses : ) I was told I couldn't put a cow with my horses that the horses would pick on the cow and kick her but I proved that theory wrong : )

Kayla and Chuwy are good friends and I love watching them together even though Chuwy is really dirty.

And, Our happy little Eric just smiles all the time and is so easy to keep happy. He is really fun.

Pictures

We finally found and charged batteries etc. for both of our cameras and in addition finally put 2yrs worth of pictures off of Gregs phone into the computer. So I'll share a couple.

Eric is doing well after his surgery and seemed to have his toughest day yesterday. Today he is tired so I think he's just finally getting to a good point where he can comfortably sleep. Kayla is growing up so much both physically and in maturity. She is starting to obey us sometimes : ) I was going to write more often but decided sometimes would better describe it LOL. She is discovering her world and we are really enjoying watching it. She loves her brother and takes good care of him by taking him toys and blankets and giving him hugs and kisses. He is responding by trying to crawl. This morning he was up on all 4 rocking so I think he'll be crawling very soon.

These pics are fairly recent. One is of Eric right before surgery in his hospital gown at the Childrens hospital entertaining himself with a toy.

Erics surgery

Eric had a minor (well technically minor) surgery yesterday and is recovering well today. This surgery was to correct some male anatomy imperfections and to help with urination etc. He had to be intubated for anesthesia but woke quickly and happy and is now just real sore. He has a bandage on that can be removed tomorrow and he is on strong narcotic pain medicine. Thanks to many of you who have been praying for him.
We still don't have internet at our new house so hopefully we get that soon and then I'll be able to do more blogging. I know pics are needed so you can pray I have time to look for my cameras and start taking more pics. : )

no internet

We are completely moved other than moving a few last small things (including some kitchen stuff like dishes). The only reason we haven't moved the last few items is that I'm trying to find places to put away all the things I have already moved : ).
Our internet and phone were supposed to be transferred on friday OCT 31st but after they turned off our old service they discovered it was going to be a major and expensive job to bring phone lines to our new house and even then because we are more than 3 miles from their office they said we won't be able to receive DSL like we have been getting.
We are currently looking into our options and they finally turned the old service back on at our old house so when we come to town we can at least check our email etc.
During the moving process we have also misplaced our camera so we haven't gotten any pictures. I really wanted pictures of the kids in their halloween costumes and of Erics baby dedication but we'll just have to hope someone else took some and will share them with us.
We'll try to keep things updated if possible.
Today is voting day so be in prayer for our country more than ever today. I also want to ask everyone to pray for my very close friend, Patsy, ( I call her my Cuero Mom). She just had both of her kidneys removed and has cysts on her liver (that they drained). She is in San Antonio in the hospital and having a real rough go so please pray for her recovery process.

New Address

We plan to move all of our things tomorrow. We have already moved ourselves and our kitty. The dog has to wait until we can get his fence built. It will be in the next few days. Anyways I figured I'd post our new address.
The Johnson Family
6043 W. Hwy 72
Cuero, TX 77954

Our other address will still be good for a while but we are now receiving mail at the new address so its time for everyone to update it. : )

Move in progress

I guess you can say that our move is finally in progress! The new house is finally ready to live in (not complete by any means but ready to live in) Yay!
Last weekend we stayed there over the weekend and did some cleaning etc. and this weekend we stayed there again and got the front porch attached and had our first get together there. We dedicated Eric to the Lord sunday and it was Kayla and Erics Grandmas birthday so we had all of Kayla and Erics Grandparents from both sides and aunts uncles and cousins from Daddys side over for a party. We had birthday cake and BBQ and invited our pastor and his wife to join us as well. There were a few others that couldn't make it and we missed tehm but we had a great time. Now we don't want to leave to come back to the old house but most of our stuff is still here. Anyways in a couple weeks our internet will be transferred and hopefully saturday we'll get moved.

Sewer treatment plant

I guess you can see it doesn't take much to excite us! We have been waiting for months for this and it is finally complete. Our new Aerobic septic system has been installed. Two days of backhoe work in our very hard clay ground that is like cement! Other than not having steps up to the front door our house if finally ready to be moved into!

Our new system has 3 sprinklers that water 7100 ft of our pasture. The tank consists of 4 chambers to treat the sewer and then pump it into the sprinkler system. We are just glad to have it done so we can continue or move and get our current house sold. These pics were taken during construction. I'll post more pics of completion later. We'll keep you updated as things progress.

Eric update

I am finally able to sit down to update the blog. I don't think I have shared a lot on this blog about Erics health lately so I figured its time to share.

Over the last 4 months of Erics life we have dealt with a lot of health issues for him. These of course began with his 8 day stay in NICU and continued when he came home and failed to gain weight. We have struggled with feeding, especially breastfeeding but also bottle feeding as he seems to have some feeding aversions. We know from tests performed that he has acid reflux as well as some other minor complications but nothing in the form of any kind of syndrome or anything. He has been receiving physical therapy for a few months now and this week we saw a neurologist, a genetecist and his neonatologist. He is scheduled to see his primary care physician this next week.

The good news is that he doesn't have any true genetic, heart or neurological syndromes or diseases. He will be watched closely as he grows since he does have some conditions that are thought to be nothing to worry about but nevertheless they exist, like a cyst on his brain or as the neonatologist described it, static! This isn't anything they are concerned about. He has a heart murmur but it is a common murmur found in babies and will go away as his heart matures. We do beleive that his acid reflux is causing some problems so we plan to aggressively seek further treatment for that. He is scheduled for a minor surgery on Nov. 4th because he has a condition called hypospadius (we'll let you look that up yourselves) but it is very minor and the surgery will most likely be nothing more than circumcision under anesthesia.

Dr.s are amazed and impressed with his cognitive and social skills. And we thank God for blessing us with such a cute little boy.

Join us as we thank God for Eric and for his good reports this week with the specialists and continue to pray with us for resolutions to his minor health concerns.

Proud to have a big sister at Duquesne University

Kayla is showing how excited she is to be wearing the shirt sent to her by Katie from Duquesne University. Katie, my birthdaughter that I gave for adoption 18 years ago, and I are staying in touch via email. Kayla knows her picture and says her name with excitement when she sees it. I loved this picture. Eric is also sporting the Duquesne logo!

Today the septic installer will meet with me to arrange having the septic installed at our new place. Then once that is complete we can move! Yay!

Anyone want to buy a house : )

Hurricane Ike update

Just a quick update to let those who are wondering know. We here in Cuero didn't get as much as a drop of rain as Hurricane Ike roared through Texas early this morning. So I guess we'll enjoy the slightly cooler weather and work around our house. First I'm going to go see if the town is starting to liven up. Last night it was dead, most windows were boarded up and businesses were closed.

virus attack

Our week included sick kids and Grandma in the hospital but everyone is doing fine now. Nothing like the attack of the virus! Grandma Johnson got out of the hospital today and is doing ok and both kids are now on antibiotics and decongestants. These pictures portray a typical day at our house. Eric is growing well and Kayla is now potty training. She loves to read as you can see in the picture where she fell asleep reading her book : )

Two special kids going night night

Kayla loves to hold her brother and she loves to lay with him at bedtime. This picture was taken tonight, I don't know why it turned out with such poor quality but I thought I'd share it. Kayla and Eric really adore each other it is really precious.

Erics good report today

Eric saw the cardiologist today and came away with a good report. There is nothing to worry about as far as his heart is concerned. When he is a year old he will return for another echocardiogram to assure that the hole in his heart has closed properly. He was so cute and had the nurses and the Dr. laughing. They said most babies don't like the sticky things they use to put little testers on them. They are pretty much just thick tape. Anyways they thought he was going to cry when they pulled them off but instead he smiled and laughed. Then the Dr. came in and looked at him and said "Well little boy, you sure are growing good" or something like that and Eric smiled with his whole body and everytime the Dr. made eye contact he would just grin as big as could be. The Dr. said he couldn't get over how happy he was.

Then since I was in Victoria and Kayla was hanging out at the babysitters I did some errands I needed to do. Eric was super good all day and never fussed at all.

Kayla was good all day too and she is really starting to tell little storys etc. When I was driving her to the babysitters this morning she was in her carseat singing. Happy Birthday to me. But it sounded more like this "Bappy BeeDee meeeeeee" over and over again. For those that haven't got to see her recently you better come visit her soon or she'll be all grown up before you know it. Eric uses a large ball for some therapy exercises. Kayla immediately figured out that when mommy has the piano bench moved away from the piano that she can use the ball as a place to sit and play.

Kayla's 2 year old Birthday party

Isn't half the fun of a birthday helping with cleanup of the birthday cake decorating process?
Kayla loved her Lego/Duplo cake. Mommy doesn't know if she ever wants to make another one : )
Really cool present from Kayla's Uncle Gordon, Aunt Lee Ann, cousins Abby and Frank
More cool presents. This is a Lego/Duplo Block o dile that eats the legos
Grandma Johnson found the truly entertaining and quiet gift. This is magnetic and you can draw on it or play with the magnetic letters and on the back it has a chalkboard. Then it closes and buckles and looks like a suitcase for traveling.

Kayla says thankyou to everyone who mailed her presents too. She opened them on her actual birthday on August 4th. Tonight was a Johnson family birthday party and what a fun night it was. The gummy legos that are left can become potty training incentives.

Oscars Tribute

Some of you know that on June 6th 2008 we had to say goodbye to our family dog Oscar. Greg got him shortly before we got married, I think he was 5 months old when we got married. A lot was happening in June and we were just getting out of the hospital in Cuero and ready to head to Victoria to be with Eric in NICU when in all the confusion Oscar got out into the road and hit and killed by a car. We really miss him now and things seem a little empty without him so I thought I'd post some pictures of him here.

I know I have more good (better) pictures of him but these are ones I was able to find quickly.

Kayla with the horses

Kayla has many opportunities to develop a love for horses. We let her decide how much she wants to be around them and when we take care of them she loves to help feed them etc. When Sarah was here we brought a couple horses to the house. Kayla rode her pony "Zach" around the yard less than two times as happy as can be but then that was enough for her. She didn't want to ride again the whole time we had him here. She had fun leading him but had just let go of him to go do something else when this picture was snapped. Then when we offered to let her ride Cheyenne she was very excited and had lots of fun on Cheyenne. Maybe she is smart and just wants to ride the big horses. LOL. I figured I should share some pics of her on Zach and Cheyenne so just do me a favor and look at the horses and the kid and pretend I'm not in the pictures. : )

Our cute kids

Aren't our kids cute? Ok I guess the mommy in me is taking off but I am really having fun with both of my kids right now. Eric has started smiling consistently and responsively and oh how my heart melts when he smiles at me : ). We changed his formula this week and even though he only takes about 4-6oz of formula a day to make up for the tiny bit of breastmilk shortage what a difference the new formula makes. He is so much happier now and is sleeping much better. In fact almost immediately after starting the different formula he started sleeping 3-5 hour stretches at night. That is much better than the 2 hour stretches or less. The picture on the left was taken by Sarah when she visited in the outfit she gave him. The other picture is showing off the cute blanket and hat that His Aunt Beth knitted for him. He was wearing matching booties too but they just didn't make the picture.

Kayla decided she wanted some time being the "baby" too so she watched a movie laying in Erics bouncer with his pacifier today. She is really growing up though and is talking better every day. She adores her brother and has learned to take extra good care of him. Today she offered him his pacifier and he refused it so she decided she better feed him just like mommy does but when she lifted her shirt to feed him I figured I'd better find her another way to take care of him : )

August is already here WOW!

I can't beleive August is already here. Tomorrow Kayla will be 2yrs old and Eric will be 2 months old. What a joy they are to us! Kayla continues to amuse us with her growing sense of humor and imagination. Eric is so sweet and cuddly and is starting to smile at us.





In the pictures you can catch a glimpse of one of Kayla's naptime adventures. I think I took this picture on thursay 3 days ago. When I left Kayla for her nap she was tucked into her toddler bed fully dressed with her doll next to her. I went back to check on her a few minutes later after I had heard no noise and found her mostly undressed (except for her oh so adorable wranglers) and apparently she decided to powder herself before falling into a deep sleep on top of her changing table. Sheesh her mommy keeps praying she will never roll in her sleep because who knows how high in the air she will be when she falls asleep. I fully expect to find her hanging from the ceiling fan someday.






This picture of Eric was taken shortly after I cleaned Kayla up and put her back in bed. Isn't his paddinton bear quilt cute? This is his oh so serious look. He doesn't really like to be put down much but is getting better about it everyday. He keeps mommy busy and Daddy too. Kayla loves him so much and checks on him often through the day.

















We aren't planning to do much for Kayla's birthday until we move into our new house. We might have a small family party (cake and punch) either tomorrow or saturday so stay tuned for pictures.

a week of help

Since my cousins daughter, Sarah, has been here to help me all week we have managed to work with Zacheus our miniature horse. Kayla rode him around the backyard once and decided that was enough riding and doesn't want to get on again : ). Thats ok she'll have plenty of opportunity for horses in her life I'm sure. Sarah has been a great help this week with the kids too. She has been getting the worst of the worst and has now learned to keep a burp rag with her at all times and we won't even talk about the diaper leaking moments.
Eric is almost 2 months old now and is still growing well however he does have some issues to deal with. He will be having therapy with Physical and occupational therapists multiple times per month for a while. He is a little weak and needs to build strength so he can eat better. We'll update as we know more about his struggles right now we are really just trying to sort it all out. We are thankful that he is growing so well. He has an amazing focus and communicates with his eyes incredibly well for a tiny baby. He loves to be talked to and singing calms him down instantly most of the time (in conjuction with a full belly and being held).
Tonight was full of adventure when we (all 5 of us) piled into the truck and towed the horse trailer with Zach the pony out to the property to trade horses to keep here at the house. Greg needed to do more work on plumbing on our new house but when we arrived we found there had been a water leak and our new house was flooded! All of the linoleum was a couple inches deep in water and the water had been draining through the floor vents and underneath the double wide was flooded but thankfully it didn't seem to go far onto the carpet and dried quickly once the water was turned off. When we got in the truck to come home loaded with a different horse the truck wouldn't run well and we lurched and jumped as the truck sputtered and choked all the way home but at least we made it. Greg and I returned to the new house to clean up the water on the floors and found them to be almost dry Praise the Lord. I don't think we'll have any floor damage at least I hope not.
Well that is our update I keep thinking I'll update more but it doesn't seem to be happening. I'll try to get more pics of this week up with Sarah and the horses and kids.

yardsale

I am finally getting around to posting here. Last week we focused on gathering junk for a yardsale. We held our yardsale saturday even though we didn't get an ad in the paper. We brought in a few hundred dollars which was very helpful since we are currently without reg. income. We sold our tables and chairs so now we are using TV trays until we move to our new house where we have a table with chairs that are just too big to fit in our current dining room. We sold the table and chairs we have for more than we bought the ones for our new house for so I am calling our yardsale a success. We also cleared a lot of junk out that we didn't want to move and we survived the hot July day.

Eric has gained weight and is becoming a little chunk. Today he weighed 9lb 5oz so that is a 2lb gain since his birth weight and he is now 6 weeks old. Kayla is growing up and talking more and more everyday. She is both undressing herself and dressing herself now. This morning she was wearing coral colored shorts with a yellow shirt and two pink socks but not matching ones and green sandals! She always likes to find shoes to wear to bed and we usually find her wearing mismatched shoes and socks in the morning when we wake up. Her big accomplishment for the week is that she is sleeping in her toddler bed with no gate on her bedroom door to contain her. She is doing a great job. The picture of her I'm posting is from the 4th of July carnival, she loved the bean bag toss. You can see in the picture of Eric how much he has grown.

fun in the sun

Kayla stole the hearts of all who watched the kids parade at the park on July 4th. With her daddy's help she took her car (decorated by mommy) through the parade with loud squeels saying "Wheeeee". She even made the evening news. You can watch the news clip at http://www.myvictoriaonline.com/content/view/979483/7/







Eric weighed 8lb 5oz at his weekly checkup! This was a big gain from last weeks weight check. He is eating well and doing fantastic in every way. Now maybe he'll grow into some of his clothes!

No blood clot

Well, after lots of running around yesterday between the hospital and the Dr. clinic I learned that I do not have a blood clot! Yay, I'm glad that is over. I do not have to continue to give myself shots and just have to check back in at the Dr. office today if I still have symptoms and thurs if my symptoms dissappear today. What an annoyance this whole thing has turned out to be.
Eric appears to be going through a growth spurt and seems to be doing really well. He has now decided he wants to eat all the time and is eating lots! This is a good thing for him but is wearing me out!
Kayla spent most of yesterday playing with Grandma Johnson. She has taken on a new favorite activity of putting puzzles together and is very good at it. We are enjoying watching her sort out puzzle pieces when there are a few puzzles all combined. She has no trouble with it and does the puzzles over and over again. Her other favorite activity right now is to draw and you can't trick her by giving her a pen that doesn't work either : )
I'm hoping for a day of normalcy today so we'll see how it goes.

Drama

It seems the drama never ends at our house. Or should I say Houses! My dad came back through on his way back to Arizona to help finish getting the plumbing and electrical work done on our double wide. Thankfully we got a lot done (with still a lot to do). I think what we still need before we move in is to get the septic tank installed, have the A/C hooked back up and charged and build a fence to keep horses away from our house and cars etc. I was especially thankful Dad and Julia happened to be here when they did, and that Gregs mom was able to come help out for the day because yesterday "after" the Dr. offices were closed I realized I had a medical matter that needed attention on one of my legs. So last night at 9pm we went to ER while Dad and Julia watched Kayla. After some tests it was decided that there was a good possibility that I had a blood clot in my leg so I was given shots of lovenox and sent home with a prescription so I could give myself shots for the next few days until we make sure there either is no blood clot or the clot is gone. Now I hate shots! I really hate shots! I also have to keep my feet elevated and avoid sitting or standing. I am quite proud of myself for managing to give myself the first shot. Tomorrow I have to go have an ultrasound and then go see my Dr. to find out what my treatment will be in addition to the shots I have to give myself twice a day. In addition to the inconvenience of that our van is broke down and I might have to drive Greg to work tomorrow and in addition to that Kayla isn't feeling well again. I am very tired of being a sick and tired family : )
We did have a great day at church and Eric seems to be doing great. I have great peace that God is taking care of us but boy I'm ready for a break from all of this : )

ENT appt

Its 4:30 am and I am going back to bed in a moment but in case I don't get a chance to blog later today I wanted to put a short note here about the Ear nose and throat Dr. appt we went to today.

Eric had a good report and passed the hearing test with no problems. He will be tested again in 6 months just as a precaution since he was on antibiotics at birth.

Kayla loved the Dr. which amazed me and I really liked him too. She even sat on his lap after he looked in her ears and probed around! Anyways as I suspected she needs tubes placed in her ears. He also wants to remove her adenoids so that surgery is scheduled for July 7th. Keep us in your prayers as we move foreward with this next medical neccessity.

The best part of the day was using the gift card Greg got from his work as a doorprize from a work party. It was an Olive Garden gift card and I took my friend, Rachel there for lunch since she got a babysitter for her kids so she could come with me and help me take Kayla and Eric to their appt. I couldn't have done it alone that is for sure!

The worse part of the day was Greg having a flat tire on his way to join us for lunch at Olive Garden. We got him some lunch to go from there but he had to eat it later since changing the tire took up his lunch period and he had to return to work instead of joining us.

My dad and his wife Julia and her 2 Grandsons arrived tonight and will be with us for a few days so that will be fun. Kayla was very excited to see them.

So our week is ending busy like it began. The picture was taken of Eric monday when we helped out briefly at VBS. The VBS theme is Outrigger island so his outfit is supposed to match the tropical theme. Tomorrow we plan to take Julias Grandsons to VBS so we'll close out the week where we started it and after its over I'll be taking Eric to his primary care physician again to check weight etc.

Thanks for all your continued prayer and support

Acid reflux

I'm able to upload pics again so here are some pics taken a few days ago. Kayla loves her baby brother and loves to sit next to us when we are holding Eric and she is good to him for the most part. Eric loves to be cuddled and swaddled and when you un dress him he screams! I keep trying to take pictures of him with his eyes open but he keeps blinking and I get closed eyes pictures. I took more today but haven't put them on the computer so stay tuned.

Today Eric had his tests done and we found that he has acid reflux. This is a better diagnosis than some of the other possiblities so we are glad that medication 3x per day should fix the problem. He also gained weight in the last couple days so I think we are doing good.

Can't post pictures

I planned to post some current pictures but for some reason I can't get it to work. Ughhh oh well. Anyways please pray for us tomorrow as we take Eric to Victoria for some tests. He is scheduled for a swallow study and an abdominal ultrasound just to make sure there are no problems. He has been doing ok but is not gaining weight properly. The Dr. wants to see if he has acid reflux or any other problems that could be affecting his weight gain. Anyways keep us in your prayers and I'll try posting more pictures later.

Erics journey

I promised I would post pics and tell a little of Erics story so even though I don't have a lot of time here is a short blurp along with some pictures that are very disorganized and not any where close to being in order but they were all taken during his hospital stay after birth.

As most know, Eric was breech and just refused to turn so C section was our only birthing option. We had scheduled it for the 10th of June but on June 4th I started having contractions and the Dr. decided to do a C section that day to prevent any problems from laboring. The C section was performed (its really kind of neat how they do C sections and I was awake and aware of what was happening the whole time. Eric was born at 1:45 screaming and sounding like a healthy baby. He was considered full term medically and Dr.s and other medical staff did not expect him to have any problems. He got a good apgar score and seemed find at birth but within an hour or so he started to crash and his breathing was not good. It was decided that he needed to be rushed to Victoria to a bigger hospital with a NICU so that evening an ambulance arrived and Eric was rushed away and Greg followed close behind (but Greg went the speed limit I think!). I had to stay behind in Cuero until I could be released from the hospital 2 days later.

Eric endured many tests and procedures including blood transfusions, full IV nutrition, C pap machine for breathing, umbilical catheters for blood draws and medication administration etc. It was sunday the 8th before he stabilized enough that I could nurse him or even hold him. (I had been allowed to hold him about twice before that for a brief moment). On tuesday the 10th he was released to us but we all had to stay at the hospital for another 30 hours while they watched his condition to be sure he was going to do ok.

We finally got to come home the evening of the 11th as you saw on my last blog.

I'll post more on my next blog with some more current and much more pleasant pics of our little boy.