I'm enamored.....

Someone help me!! I can't stop taking pix :-)

Can u tell I LOVE to take baby photos?

Gabriel *finally* got to go off his bili blanket. We have to recheck it again Thursday and as long as it doesn't go back up he can be off for good this time. He is doing so well! Breastfeeding like a champ which is so nice. All our other children took a few weeks to really get established but he is a pro! His only problem in life is he has no "bum" :-) We had to fine preemie diapers and they fit MUCH better than the newborn ones. We are doing much less laundry now!! We even tried folding etc the newborn diapers but he still got everyone and everything wet!The kids are enamored with him, its so fun to watch!

More pix :-)

More pix!

He's a little yellow but getting better :-) We are so much in love!!!!!!!! Kloe especially!

Gabriel "Gabe" Joshua Barker

He arrived at 4:48 p.m. on Saturday November 28th. He was 7lbs. 13 oz. and 20 inches long. He arrived about one month early but is very healthy! We thank God for our new bundle!!!!! He is such a good baby!!!! He looks just like Kelly, much to her delight!!

Just wanted to upload our "we tried to take Christmas photos!" pictures. Kloe wasn't having ANY of that! We never did get a family portrait but got ones of the kids etc.

Love to all....

Happy Fall!

Exciting news! I got all my tubes out, YAY! My kidney tube quit working so they went to replace it and found maaaaany stones. After a lengthy surgery etc they removed what they could and said unless I got a miracle that I would lose both my kidneys very soon unless I could find a doctor that could figure out why my kidneys were making stones at such a fast rate. That was a Tuesday. We prayed and I was very sick and sore from the surgery. On Friday I began having contractions and when my home health care nurse came out to change my PICC line dressing she told me I really should be at the hospital. I told her it felt like I was just passing stones and that was probably causing the contractions so if I could just pass the stone it should stop. She left and I told her I would call my OB. My mom came over and my sister and about that time the contractions became very regular and hurt. My mom called Josh and told him what was going on and he came home and we went to L&D at Dupont. I was contracting but thankfully my cervix hadn't began to dilate. They game me meds to relax my kidney and admitted me. In 24 hours I passed 3 large stones and the contractions stopped and all was well. I told the surgeon the next day that I really thought my own kidney was working and they agreed that since I was passing stones that perhaps by some miracle THAT was the blockage keeping my own tube from working (which is why I needed a neph tube). So they took me to OR and did a test and I did get my MIRACLE! Thank you God!!!! They consulted another surgeon and agreed that the tube could come out! I was soo happy! I finished my IV antibiotics 4 days later and the PICC line came out. My infection was gone too! We were so excited! I feel like a new person. All my blood counts are almost normal. I am anemic but other than needing a nap sometimes I don't really notice. My skin color went back to normal, no more of that yucky scary yellow pale skin. I have lots of energy and feel so great! I can FINALLY enjoy this pregnancy. Even though now I am 31 weeks and its almost over...sad sigh! BUT I am thankful baby is great!

Kloe just celebrated her 3rd Birthday! We had so much fun. Josh took her and Jo to the farmers market so the twins and I could decorate the house. She came in the door and her jaw dropped, it was so adorable! She thanked us over and over all day for "decorating my house in princess!). We bought her mostly clothes and Kelly gave her a princess trunk and they wrapped all her gifts and put them in there. She had a blast. Kloe is such a clothes horse, it made her day!

I posted a few new pix on Flickr, you can view them by going to http://www.flickr.com/photos/barkerzoo/ . But we are doing fam pictures this weekend and I will get those up of ALL the kids!

Love you all-
Andra

Hi Everyone!

Happy Fall! This is my favorite time of the year. We can already see a few trees sheeding some orange, how pretty!!!! My mom has tons of mums this year and they are in full bloom. I love it! And since I have a lot of time to sit and admire trees and flowers I have noticed how very pretty God made this time of year!

We are all doing ok. Its been a very rough couple of months. I haven't posted because I haven't been able to sit at the computer for more than a few minutes at a time. Since July I have had 4 tube surgeries and 3 inpatient hospital stays and more appts than I can count. I now am on a PICC line and doing antibiotics every 8 hours. Those infusions really wipe me out. My blood counts are affected by the meds and some days its just all I can do to get school done and care for the kids. But this last tube the surgeon put in a lot more stitches and so my pain from the tube moving around is so much better. I have actually began to get some deep cleaning done. Meaning I sit in a chair and the kids or my mom give me the stuff and we have been going thru closets and getting rid of clothes that the kids have outgrown. Its been so nice to get this done. Its a verrrry slow process and I certainly can't do it without thier help so I really appreciate it. If it weren't for family and church family making meals and running errands I don't know what we would have done. I can't drive much. My iron was so low that for a while it was all I could do to stay awake. I think I could drive now with a pillow behind my tube but since my immune system is pretty much wiped out and its flu season I have no where to go... bummer! But, the baby is doing great! I go this Friday for a 3D ultrasound to see how big this little guy is. I now have gestational diabetes but doing well. Since Kloe was 7lbs 15 oz at 34 weeks, they are keeping a close eye on his weight. A month ago he was measuring about 2 weeks ahead so it should be interesting!

Josh took the semster off school to help me out and I really appreciate that. He is also working overtime right now so it's a good thing he isn't in school, there is only so much time in every day.

The twins are deep in the fall school semester and we love the new curriculum!!

Josiah loves preschool and he is so smart. Kloe sits and tries to be in school while he is but she mostly colors and pretends but its cute.

Everyone is healthy. We had a bad bought of the flu but everyone is fine now. Kloe will turn 3 in a few weeks so I will try to post pix after her bday.

Much love
Andra

Baby Boy.....

We had our ultrasound on Monday and baby is def a boy! He was moving around and sucking on his big toe. It was soooo cute. He is doing fine, oblivious, thank God, to all the kidney issues and tubes. OB, Dr. Scott, says pg is perfect. Thank you God!!!!!

Josh has still been battling this flu. Its wiping him out. I think the coumadin doesn't help, its makes his body so weak. Jo and Kelly have come down with it but not as bad as he had it.

We are STILL waiting for a surgery date on Kelly. Should know something today or tomorrow they said.

Noah is ready to start school next week. Kelly is in limbo.

Kloe is just mad at me for being gone so much but I think she is starting to forgive me :-)

Since our last post I had to have sugery 2 more times. The tube quit working both time and one time it actually got debris stuck and blew a hole in the tubing inside my body. That was no fun! So on Sunday we finally got all my care transferred to Ft. Wayne so my OB and specialitsts have a much easier time working together.

I LOVE the new surgeon. He did an awesome job. We had to go with a bigger tube and put it deeper in the kidney (fun, fun!) BUT, its working very well. He and I both hope this one will last until AFTER the baby comes in December.

I am so sore from having 3 proceudres in 2 weeks. I am tired and hormonal :-) My poor family!

Please keep us all in your prayers, its just been a very tiring few weeks.

C-ya
Andra

Almost school time...

School starts in two weeks. Geez, that was a quick summer. We are really excited this year as we are trying new curriculum. I'll let you know later on how we like it. We found something that does most of the planning for you etc, that will help me out.

I am so glad to be home. I spent most of last week in the hospital. On Tuesday I began feeling worse. By noon I was really "out of it". I called my dad and he came over. He told me to "put my shoes on". He took me to the hospital where they diagnosed me with an infection and said to see the surgeon in the morning so they could decide how to proceed. Weren't sure at that point if I needed another nephrostomy tube. I came home on some strong meds, took a nap, and woke up shivering and very ill. Josh demanded I go back to the hospital. Good thing he did. The infection had kind of spiraled out of control. It was in both kidneys. I don't remember a whole lot after that. I felt so out of my head from the fever and chills. They sent me to another hospital where my OBGYN is and sent in a kidney specialist. After tests etc it was determined that I had a nasty infection in both kidneys, the tubed kidney was much much worse. We did a little trial in the hospital to see if the tube was still needed or if we could get rid of it and it wasn't working. So, looks like I have to keep in until Dec/Jan and then try again. They put me on heavy duty i.v. antibiotics and worked to control the fever. Baby was doing well and still is. I just thank God we have medications to heal these things. I was very close to having a systemic infection which would have had devastating effects for the baby and myself. It got bad in just a few short hours. So bad that I honestly don't remember a lot. I can't ever remember being quite so sick. I am home now and feeling like myself for the first time in almost 3 months. The infection is getting better daily and my fevers are pretty much gone. An occasional fever/chill session but it goes away. Just trying to rest and get my strength back. I have zill energy but can manage to stay awake for more than an hour during the day now, thankfully! I am so thankful God has helped us thru this and it looks like the other kidney will not need a tube, it was just infected and its beginning to work very well! PTL!!!

The kids are looking forward to school and NOT looking forward to it all the same.
I missed them all so much last week. I hate being apart from them.

We have a big ultrasound on Thurday and then I will post pix. We get to see how baby is doing after all that's went on and if he is still a "he!".

Friday, Josh and I celebrate "16" years of marriage! Isn't that cool!

C-ya,

Andra

Life....

The Barker Zoo has been busy; sort of.. Not in the way we had hoped but busy anyway. We had such big plans this summer. The kids and I were going to sleep in everyday, lay around in the pool, and do a whole lot of nothin'. Unfortunately, life kind of does what it wants eh?

I ended up having surgery last week to have a nephrostomy tube placed in my left side. I fought it until the end, but wish now I wouldn't have! The procedure itself was painful but it didn't last long. The recovery has been uncomfortable, just trying to get in a position that allows me to sleep some is the biggest challenge. But the excruciating pain from the blockage and the "sick" feeling I had was completely gone. That is until, the left kidney started backing up on Sunday... I go in tomorrow for another renal test to see how the kidney is doing. If it is blocked, then we have to do another procedure, another tube for that kidney. Not terribly excited to say the least but I feel so sick right now again that I honestly would welcome the relief. The plan is to keep the tube in until after the baby is born. Then they will do testing to determine why I have a blockage and we will go from there.

School starts in 2 weeks and if I need a tube in the other kidney I hope we can get it done by the end of this week or early next so I can feel decent before the first day of school.

Thankfully, the baby has tolerated all of this wonderfully! He is kicking away and growing like a champ. I actually gained 2 lbs this week. My mom and Josh keep fixing all this food and I finally have an appetite. The surgeon was able to do the procedure with minimal radiation and he felt confident the baby would be fine. You have to be on your belly for the surgery and honestly that was the worst part for the baby. He was punching the table like "get off me woman"! I have to have a new tube placed every 8 weeks or so. I can't imagine how much fun when I am 9 months pg laying on my belly for an hour will be!

The kids and I have been playing board games, watching movies and reading. I am not allowed to swim with the tube, so that reallllly stinks! But when Josh gets home he takes them swimming, on walks, to the park and they count the hours, minutes, literally until he gets home everday! Josh got the flu over the weekend and was fevering and chilling. He is getting better, but for a few days there he was pretty sick. Thankfully, no one else caught it.

Josh is loving his job and this Friday is his last class for the summer. He will be glad to get his weekends back :-)

Kloe is getting so big. She is going thru this stage of constantly asking "am I the baby?". She is a little worried this baby will take her baby princess status :-) Josiah will be starting preschool at home this fall and can't be more excited. He is growing so much. He was such a rambunctous toddler, always into everything, never wanted to obey. Now, he is 4.5 years old and so calm and can play alone. He listens very well. Noah and Kelly start middle school. How depressing is that? Noah is excited as this year we are adding some higher level Science classes. We are still waiting from a call from Kelly's surgeon for a surgery date. She is getting anxious to get the process started.

We hope to talk to all of you soon and thanks for all the calls and emails and prayers!

Andra

Its been a while.....

Its been too long since I have posted. We had a computer virus and then I got really sick so I haven't even felt like being online.

First off, we are now 17+ weeks pg but the baby is measuring almost 19 at this point. So "HE" is almost half way cooked! Yes, I said he. We have had two ultrasounds and both techs said they were "pretty sure" it was a boy but both times he was playing around with his umb cord so we aren't making any major blue purchases yet :-) But our moms have been garage saleing! Thank God for grandmas! The baby is doing fantastic despite my health issues.

At 10 wks pg I started having kidney pain on my good kidney. Two weeks later it became a complete blockage. Before we got pg with this baby we were informed both my kidneys were doing awesome, no worries. Well, somehwere along the line I began developing stones at a fast rate and it caused a complete blockage. The pain was excruciating. I ended up in the hospital for a few days. We opted to wait it out. I continued to pass mannnny stones for another month. As of now the blockage is minimal and getting better. If things continue to improve and we can get rid of this new infection I won't have to have a nephrostomy tube. But if any more occur I will get a kidney tube until Dec/Jan. We are just thankful things are improving. I am feeling better. The meds make me very lethargic and sick but only 5 more days hopefully! Thank you for everyone who has made food and helped out and prayed! The medications and just the general pain from all the stones makes it about impossible to cook or even look at food most days, but it is getting better. We so much appreciate all your generosity!

Joshs's job is going great. He loves it. School is almost over for the summer session for him. Only 2 classes in the fall and he will graduate in December. His heart continues to amaze us and he is doing so well! There are times when his blood levels get out of whack and he gets very tired but they are monitoring it well.

Noah is done with baseball. This was his last year. He is getting so tall and this was his best season yet. He has been quite the helper around here this summmer. Mowing lawns and doing anything that needs to be done! His heart is doing very well. So well in fact his cardiologist was willing to let him keep on his meds another year without surgery! The twins will be in 7th grade! Mommy is sad......

Kelly will be seeing the surgeon again in two weeks and they will decide when to go ahead. She is getting tall as well and she looks so grown up. Where did time go?? She swims for most of her therapy this summer. Shes getting very good at it and she does pool walking. She is such a helper too. She reads to the toddlers and cooks or whatever we need help with. And read... She reads more books than the library can hold!

Josiah has FINALLY become completely potty trained! He is 4. He has always done pretty well but these past few weeks he is pull-up free with no accidents!
Even at night. Its funny, Kelly was so easy to potty train and Kloe does great but the boys decide WHEN they want to be. hehe. Josiah is all boy and getting tall too. See a theme here? He will be in preschool this fall and he can't wait. He loves AWANA and can't wait for it to begin again this fall.

Kloe is 2 but as big as Josiah. She weighs as much but is a few inches shorter. She is the princess of the house. And she lets everyone know it. She is fascinated with baby clothes. She wants to wear them! She will shove her 4T frame into anything she can, even newborn onesies if you turn your head. You have to beat her to the laundry when the dryer beeps or she will take everything out and try it on, she doesn't care who it belongs too. When we have company she even sneaks to try on thier shoes. She loves clothes!!! And shoes! If it glitters, sparkles, or is foo-foo, she's all over that. Its so funny! Kelly likes having her own "live doll" to play with. She will beg Kelly to do make overs every day. Not so sure how she will like having a new baby but she'll adjust.

Life is busy but wonderful!

Love to all~
Andra

It's so close.....

Summer break is less than a month away. We have started getting the pool ready. The kids are counting down the days. I am making my summer to do list. I only have 2 weeks from the end of thier school year to my college summer session starts so the list isn't that big :-) But, we are all looking for some R&R!!!

We still don't have a surgery date scheduled for Kelly. We have completed the gait study so now we wait for them to collaborate all the data and we go from there. Noah has started his last season of softball and he's so good. Josh is hoping they can both play for our church league next summer. That would be fun. Josiah and Kloe are growing like weeds. Kloe now outweighs her older brother and is getting quite tall. Her dress arrived for my nieces wedding and she can't wait to be a flower girl. I just pray she actually walks down the aisle without a hitch!

Morning, noon and night sickness is in full swing. Hopefully it lets up at 11 weeks. Not to far away! I have been fortunate with my other pregnancies that it only truly lasted that long. But these first few weeks seem to last forever! I had an u/s last week and we saw and heard the heart beating so all is well. My OB that I have had with every pg said he was looking forward to a nice long boring pg and so are we!!!

C ya-

Andra

Wonderful news.....

We have great news to share. Baby Barker #5 is on the way. We weren't expecting to share the news quite yet; it's so hard for the kids to wait a loong time for a baby, but one of the children accidentaly found out so....

The doctor is checking my Beta levels as a precaution of all the miscarriages and everything has been wonderful.

The baby, now called "Nemo!" by the kids is due on Christmas Eve but we are positive it will be here a few weeks before, they always are!

Josiah wanted to know how big the baby was and why my tummy was so squishy! :-) We told him that the baby is a little bean right now but will swim in the squishy water until it grows into a big baby to meet the world. So since the baby is in water, well.. they dubbed the baby "Nemo".

Love to all~

Andra and Josh

A new season....

And no, I don't mean the winter/spring weather :-) Wow, that was weird. Waking up in April to a snow covered van! As I keep saying... we are craving warmer temperatures... Josh was given news today that he is now on permanent lay-off after this week.

Some may see this as bad news but not us! I can see many positives out of this. For one, we get to spend more family time together! Josh has been working towards finishing his degree and now he will have the time to go back full-time! Kelly is getting ready to have her "big" surgery so he can be there for that and the list goes on and on....

One thing Josh always reminds me of is when the twins were 3 months old. He lost his job at Zimmer due to downsizing. We were scared to death, weren't sure how to handle it. BUT, it turned out the a great 6 months of our lives and we wouldn't change that time for ANYTHING! He was there for all thier "firsts". It was a special time. And the very day his severeance etc ran out, he got a job offer!

God has our back. We see this as an opportunity, not a loss. We will continue to pray daily for Newmar that God will bring that company back to where its always been before the high gas prices etc. WE love the Miller family and are grateful for ALL they have done for us, thru everything! And we pray that one day Josh can go back there to work. If that's what God wants for us, it will happen. If not, then his plans are perfect and we are excited to see where he will take us from here!

Thanks for all the well-wishes, concerns, and prayers!

Love you all-
Andra

Kelly was in the newspaper for Ed-Com!!!!

Spring Cleaning....

Oh, the joys of cleaning. I LOVE being able to open the windows and getting the fresh air in our house! I have 5 bags so far to drop off at Goodwill, but I am sure there will be more. We always toy with the idea of having a garage sale but the thought of having this stuff in my house for another month drives me totally nuts. Plus, we itemize our taxes so we get a nice chunck for a tax break. I am taking it one closet at a time.. The kids are starting to notice what I am doing, I think they are bolting down thier items in fear they will be gone! I have assured them that nothing they are using will move but if they haven't used it since fall, its a goner...

The yard is next. I can't wait to get the last of the leaves that fell right before the snow hit. Its driving me nuts seeing it out there but the house is first!

Summer semster starts in a few months and with Kellys surgery right around the corner I need to get this stuff done ASAP!

Ed-Com

Hi everyone,

Ed-Com was a success this year, as always. I am so proud of the kids and their hard work. For those of you not familiar with EdCom, its an educational communications platform for public and private schools in our county. Kids pick a topic at the beginning of their school year and research it until March where they give a presentation of their findings and learning. Its so awesome. This year there were over 700 kids presenting their projects. My goal and hope for next year is to see over 25 home school kids join us. Most parents were unaware it existed so they didn't participate. We are hoping to get the word out.

The children present their projects to a panel of 3 or more adults called "appraisers". They have rubrics where they can leave feedback and they always leave lots. They let the kids know where they can improve, such as more eye contact with their audience or to speak louder. But most of all they give LOTSSSS of positive feedback. They listen intently to every project in their room and praise the children so much. My kids always get nervous before the day rolls around and then leave the high school with nothing but smiles and confidence.

Kelly researched the Make-A-Wish foundation and Noah researched Binary Robotics. One thing that came out this year was interest in our education! A few appraisers actually asked when it was over to know more about homeschooling, they were excited. They praised us on how smart and confident our children were. Most people still believe home schooled children are shy, pale (from not going outside enough!, that one always cracks me up!), and socially unable to interact with their peers. When our kids went in confident and all smiles, with presentations beyond thier grade level, their peers were impressed. They even asked my husband why home schooled children seem "smarter". His answer is simple: they get more one on one time with their teacher and when they learn a topic they can move on, not wait for other students to catch up and when they need help they get it and don't move on until they have learned the subject!

The local newspaper even took our daughters picture. We love homeschooling and felt blessed that we were able to reach out to our community in such a positive way! Afterwards, Joshs mom and step-dad took us all out for lunch. We had a very nice visit. It was a nice day all around!!!

Everyone in the zoo is healthy. The sun is shining today, even though it snowed here yesterday, yuck! We are thankful for sunshine!!! Josh went back to work this week, we miss him already. Kloe is getting so tall. Josiah and Kloe look like twins more than the twins ever did!

Josiah joined Cubbies at church. He has a little vest and everything. He earned little patches I got iron on....He is growing up too fast, they all are... snif snif....

C-ya,

Andra

I crave spring.....

Man oh man... All these trips to the hospital, they caught a bug. First Noah, then Kelly, with an upper resp cold. Then Tuesday, Josiah got a really bad 24 hr stomach virus, but it came as soon as it went. Josh and I didn't sleep much last night, we now have the bone aching flu bug, (thanks twins!!!). We got woke up by Kloe at 7 a.m. wanting to be "held"... by 8 a.m. she was throwing up sooo bad. It's lasted all day. She can't keep anything down. I am giving her small sips of water and 7-up etc. She keeps napping, which is highly unusual for her!

I want warm weather and sunshine. I want to open the windows, bleach my house, and kill all these winter germs!!!

I can't wait to get outside. Last weekend it was nice enough to take them out and ride bikes, they loved it! Looking forward to more!

My brother is doing well. Fighting hard!

Love to all-
Andra

We have been staring at our dashboard so much the past month, I didn't even try to post. I have tried to keep on top of things for my brothers blog www.georgehatcher.blogspot.com for him so I sort of ignored this one :-)

We have made so many trips to and from Indy and Ft. Wayne that poor Kloe kicks and screams when we even go NEAR the van now.

BUT!, Kelly and Josiah pooled thier bday money and bought a DVD dual screen player for the van. Its been SOOOO nice the last week. I actually got about 3/4 into the trip before Kloe started yelling " I want out!"

We have all managed to stay healthy until this week and then Kelly got a cold and we all ended up with it. Josiah had a 24 hour tummy bug but is up and running this morning like nothing ever happened.... Being at the hospital so much I am thrilled all we got was a cold. I wash hands, I sanitize, I do everything to keep them from getting germs at the hospital, but its always impossible...

Well, I hope you have a great week. By the way, check out Kelly's new site. www.hisprincessonwheels.blogspot.com

Its really cool!

Hi everybody,

Don't ya just love Northern IN? Only here can you have a "green" Christmas and a white Valentines Day :-) Ok, so this year it was a white Christmas but some years its not. This winter has seemed to drag on and on. BUT, the sun has been shining his face so at least it helps to lift the mood and monotony of winter.

Normally, we home school in our room in the basement. But when the gray sky's of old man winter kicked in it was rather depressing! When the sun began to shine we moved upstairs. It makes for more clean up at the end of the day but its been well worth it. To see the sun flowing thru the windows has been sooo nice! Its too cold most days for the kids to even play outside but its very nice to feel the warmth of the sun coming thru the windows.

We are so much looking forward to Spring. I can't begin to tell you how much we anticipate it!

And with Spring always comes new beginnings. New flowers, new life and new hope. We met a new doctor last week for Kelly. He was really great with her. We were all impressed. We have decided, barring anything new between now and then... to have surgery. It is pretty involved and he said quite painful but Kelly says she is ready for the challenge. She is now old enough to understand (as much as a person can) how much pain will be involved. She has done well with anesthesia the last 3 surgeries over the past year. That was biggest thing holding the medical professionals at bay before. She had a fever of 105.9 after surgery when she was a toddler so they weren't willing to give her anesthesia her for very long.

This surgery will take all day. She will be in the hospital in Indy for 5 days after and we will stay in a rehab facility for 2 weeks after that. She will then be going to Ft Wayne for Pt like always but now 2-3 times per week after rehab. And continue home PT daily as she currently does. It will be 18 months of rehab and intense PT. During the 18 months it may seem as if she has regressed but that's not the case. She will have to use her walker and wheelchair especially at first. But, the goal is at the end of the 18 months that Kelly will use her sticks for her daily walking. She can walk around our house etc right now and we hope that will even get better after surgery. There are no guarantees but if we don't do anything things will get progressively worse in the next 12 months.

They will be rotating her hips back to their normal position. They will be putting her big tendon on the side of her knee caps to pull them out and plating and screwing the knees on both sides. Some bone work, tendon work etc etc. They are planning on two doctors working on her at the same time.

Surgery is hopeful for the end of April. We are awaiting the GAIT study right now. Then we will meet with the surgeon next month so he can go over all their finding with the study, measurements, and x-rays and talk with Kelly again.

We know how hard this will be for her. We are committed to helping her thru this and know that she will do fabulous. She is so strong! Her only real question for the surgeon was "how long will it be after surgery before I can get back in the pool, cause that's my favorite PT". I truly admire her courage, I can't imagine being faced with something like this at 12!

Speaking of "12", the twins had a birthday last week! Constantly reminding us all that they will be teenagers next year! I can't cope with that. Where does time go?? :-(

We had a fun day off school, ate pizza, played games and had ice cream cake. We are taking them to the Children's Museum this week too. Josiahs bday is this weekend so we are celebrating it all at once. They love the CM, and so do we!

Josh is off work this week so he is utilizing his time to get ahead in his college classes so he can be almost finished when Kelly's surgery rolls around. Its nice having him here during the day. I enjoy spending time with my husband!

Everyone her has been pretty healthy. The normal winter colds and germs but nothing significant, thankfully! It seems everyone around is hacking and coughing or has the flu of some sort. I hope we can escape the yuckies!

We had such a nice Valentines Day. Our church had a banquet. The kids had their own thing and the adults had a very nice dinner and entertainment. It was fun!

Hope everyone is doing well.

Talk to ya soon!
Andra

YAY!!! I finally got the pictures uploaded from Noah's trip. http://www.flickr.com/photos/barkerzoo/?saved=1


I have to say, the next time we go....it will definitely be in the winter!!! Going there in the winter was soooo nice. The weather was warm but the evenings were nice, not smothering like in the summer.


Coming back, welll... that really was no fun! It was -29 below with the wind chill the day we came home. So when we left the Orlando airport it was 60 at 8a.m. when we arrived at lunch in Indy, it was -29 with wind chill. That's 89 degrees difference. Talk about shock! It took us three days to feel "warm" again, seriously. I wore heavy sweaters and wrapped in blankets for the first few days. We decided then and there, we realllly need to move! I could get used to that weather in a heartbeat.


One of the highlights of the trip was that Noah was able to really enjoy himself. He has been having more and more arrhythmia's now that he is growing so fast. His meds go by his weight. So, as he grows they change the dosage. However, he is at his maximum right now. We got back to Riley in 2 weeks to see the cardiologist to see what our options are. They originally told us that if the problem didn't get better by his 13th bday, it wasn't going to get better so we needed surgery. At his last visit they cardio said the meds were maxed out. They will have to change his med probably. But HEAT really makes his day hard. It causes his heart to beat fast. So, when we went in August, he was pretty miserable some days in Florida.


This time was so different. He was able to do more since the heat wasn't a factor. HE wanted to try a bigger coaster, but we were afraid his heart couldn't handle it. OK, MOM couldn't handle it either :-) I went on a few small ones and that was enough for me. Not a coaster gal!


Noah had lunch with an astronaut at Kennedy. Then got his picture made. That was nice. But I think he had more fun counting the crocs on the way to Kennedy on the side of the road just as much! We were in awe. I assume they are always that way, but they were all over the place. Just kinda hanging out in the watery areas in the grass.


We went to every park at Disney. We got to see the castle all decked out for Christmas. It was beautiful. On our last night there, we stayed until midnight. The babies pooped out around 10 so I let them sleep on a bench with me directly in front of the castle while Josh and the twins rode some more rides. That was a beautiful sight to see. The castle still changed colors but the castle had an *additional* 2 million lights (we were told) for the holidays. It was stunning. So bright! I had fun just sitting there watching it. What a way to end your day!


Our flights were great. On the way home we saw the Smokie Mtns.. Noah loved that. He loves flying!


Noah says the highlight of his trip was Siemens. When you stay at GKTW they give you passes. In that packet is a code for Siemens VIP lounge. Apparently this lounge is normally for their employees and "V.I.P." guests. Although it appeared there were some offices inside as well. So, we go to Epcot expecting fun. What we got was WOOOAHHH! We were very very very wowed!


Under the big "golf ball" as Jo calls it is a top secret door. If you open it there is a teeny tiny foyer. Reminds you of Charlie and the choc factory. This computer voice says "Welcome to Siemens, please enter your VIP code." We did and then this Jetson like door slid open in the wall. We had to walk this long mysterious hallway to an elevator. When we got off on the next floor it was so cool!


It was a lounge with very modern furniture. A soda fountain, a Starbucks center, bottled water etc. Every wall had computers where you could put your hand up to the screen and the heat from your hand turned it on. There were animated and interactive activities for the whole family. The floor changed colors too. Down the hall was the coolest bathrooms in the world! Even further down a private and awesome view of Epcot. The staff was wonderful and friendly. It was like walking onto a Jetsons cartoon. Noah said this was his favorite thing to do!


We also got to use two other private lounges but this one was by far the coolest to us!


Noah also got to see a few art galleries which made his day!


We did so many things its hard to name them all but we had a blast. Lots of ice cream and good food too. I have bigger hips to prove it!


Enjoy the pictures


Love,


Andra

We had a problem with our blog so we had to delete it all and start over. Here is the link to our pictures from Kelly's trip in September. There are also pics from Christmas, her new bathroom, and her cool new bike. http://www.flickr.com/photos/barkerzoo/?saved=1

We will get our Disney pix from Christmas uploaded this week and share those. They are sooo good!

Kloe came down with the stomach flu on Sunday night. Josiah came running out into the sanctuary yelling in a very *loud* whisper :-) "momma, Kloe's puking!". Poor Josh was up to his arms in little girl with nasties all over her dress and shoes. She was thoroughly peeved that her shoes were covered in spew and mad because her Pooh bear was all wet with the contents of her tummy. Needless to say, we wiped her up and headed home! She had a really high fever all night and was throwing up every hour or so. We kept giving her water etc every 15-30 minutes all night long, a teaspoon at a time to keep her hydrated. This continued all day Monday so I touched base with her ped. He said we could give it a few more hours but if not better to head to the hospital for fluids. She had almost 24 dirty pull-ups in less than 24 hours. She was so sick. But by Monday evening it was starting to slow down. She is STILL sick but only if she sneaks and eats. With just fluids we are doing pretty well but if I turn my back she's in the pantry sneaking cookies :-) Poor kid has to be hungry. And man, is she grouchy! She's better enough to be picking on Josiah but sick enough she can't eat. Hopefully, in a day or two she will be back to normal. Let's just hope the other kids don't get it!

Everyone else is doing great. Josh is still in school this semester. I took off since Kelly will most likely have her "big" surgery and my brother will do his transplant on March 2. But I plan to get back to the books in May.

The twins will be 12 in 2 weeks! Josiah will be 4 ~ 2 weeks after their birthday. I can't believe It!!!!!

Talk to you soon!

Love,

Andra