Hello 175, I don't remember the last time we saw each other

So as many of you know, John and I have changed our lives in a BIG way and have committed to be healthy and get to a healthy weight and place in our lives. This has been a huge change for our family, not just us. The people around us had to go through our crazy mood swings when our bodies were detoxing from processed foods and while we have a long way to go, we have come so far, I had to share.

This morning was a huge moment for me, I hit my 30lb mark, according to our scale. I was telling John this morning that I am so happy to be here because I cannot remember when I was 175 last. I think it might have been about 7.5 years ago when we got married, but even then I am not sure. I have been "dieting" my WHOLE life that I cannot tie my weight to a time in my life. HOW SAD IS THAT!?!? Well I am not longer dieting and I am living my life, HEALTHY!


I am also proud to say John has lost over 40lbs and we are all so proud of him. This has been a huge struggle for both of us, but I think John has made the biggest changes in his daily life and deserves credit for it! GO JOHN!!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but for me its only two

HOLY COW! Why didn't I do this sooner??????????

God hears the littlest voices

It was a typical Wednesday afternoon in the Duncan house. The kids were playing having a good time. Alexander was eating a bowl of popcorn when he tripped over his sisters foot. When he came crashing to the ground his neck slammed into the Tupperware container his popcorn was in. I didn't think it was that big of a deal until I set him on the counter and asked him what was hurt. He couldn't talk, he pointed to the side of his neck and there was this huge bulge on his neck. It looked like there was this huge mass in his neck and he began to turn blue and was having trouble breathing. We immediately put ice on the bulge and decided he needed to be taken to the hospital. At this point he was talking to us and he was breathing again, but not normal. We explained to Natalia and my Nephew, Sam that Alexander had to go to the hospital to make sure he was ok. Natalia immediately started crying and kept saying it was an accident and she was so scared her brother was going to die. We assured her he was going to be ok, he just needed to be seen by a doctor to make sure they didn't need to give him any "medicine" to make him 100% better.
Once we were all in the car, Maria driving, me in back seat with Xander, we explained to the kids he was going to be fine and everyone needed to stay calm because we were trying to keep Xander from being upset. When he would cry or talk the bulge would raise out more. Maria told the kids to pray, pray that God will keep him safe. I began to pray in my head, but Sam, prayed out loud. He prayed to God to heal his cousin and make him better because he didn't want him to be hurt and he wanted him to be ok. Ok, let me tell you, this was the SWEETEST thing I have ever heard a 4 year old do, Maria and I were welling up with tears because it was just so sweet!
We got to the hospital safely, John had just pulled in right before us. He came and Got Xander out of the car and the three of us went in. Xander was breathing better but not himself. We explained what happened and they put us right into a room. The nurse began talking to us, checking his temp, blood pressure, blah blah blah...you know the drill. About 5 minutes later Xander snapped out of it and was totally fine, the bulge was almost GONE. It was the strangest thing ever. I think the nurse was a little surprised too! She looked him over said he looked great and to bring him back if we had anymore issues.
Besides just being a little sore where he hit, he is doing wonderfully.
THE POWER OF PRAYER is truly amazing.
Neither Maria or myself self Wednesday night. WE were talking yesterday about how we were so energized by the holy spirit and his fast healing, it was amazing and overwhelming. God is great and Sam is a little hero in my book this week!

Exciting week all around

Next week is an exciting week for us and friends.

On Monday our friends found out next Wednesday they leave for China to FINALLY bring home their baby girl and we are so excited for them, I had to blog about it. God is good and he is lining things up nicely for them. What a blessing for our friend, Stacee, she gets to spend mothers day with ALL THREE of her children.

Yesterday we finally heard from Alexander's doctor, they have schedules his surgery for Wednesday as well. What an exciting day all around. Most people wouldn't be excited for their child to have surgery. While I hate having my children go under the knife, it is exciting because Alexander will be able to HEAR again! This is something we look forward to because its such a simple thing we all take advantage of! We feel very blessed the doctors can fix his hearing.

So the plan is for the doctors to go in, remove the tubes and replace them with a brand new pair! YAY! The procedure is SUPER quick and the recovery time is only a few hours.

Prayers for safe travels to the Hurst Family and for a safe surgery for Xander!

Xander's ears

So for those of you who follow this...

Here is an update on our little man.

Mom and I have noticed Alexander was beginning to lose parts of words he once said and with all the troubles of Xander's ears we decided it was time for a trip to the ENT again.

We took him in last week feeling hopeful he would pass his hearing test. However, shortly into his test we realized he wasn't passing with flying colors like the last one. This is what we suspected, but had hoped we were wrong. He is basically where he was before his surgery last year. The only difference this time is even with his hearing loss, he can hear a lot more because he knows what the words sound like. Where as last year he didn't know what any of the sounds were, he had no prior acknowledgment of them. This year they were also able to test his ears individually so we now know he is able to hear in one ear better than the other. This may carry into adult life, but we are hopeful and trust in the grace of God he will grow out of this!

The plan is to go in for surgery once more. This surgery will be just a bit longer than the last since they will be removing his old set of tubes (which are not functioning) and place new tubes in so the drum of the ear will vibrate again. Luckily Xander's hearing loss is only temporary and can be fixed. We see this as a blessing because it could be so much worse.

For now, we sit patiently waiting for the Surgery Schedule to contact the insurance company and give us a call with a time and date.

Again we appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers for Xander!

Check it out...

FOR THE LOVE OF BOB

Alexander or should we say Xander the great

My gosh how a little encouragement goes a long way. We have been really encouraging Alexander, Xander as he calls himself now, to "use his words." This has been a huge step in the right direction for him since for so long now he hasn't talked.

These past few weeks his language has exploded and while we have to remind ourselves not to use his words, wawa aka water, he also reminds us sometimes its better for him if we do. I.e. the Xander thing. The last few days he has been correcting us when we call him by name, Alexander, or nickname, Bubba and says, "NO! Me Xander!" This not only is a reminder to me he is catching up with his lack of speech, but also a reminder my cute little baby is becoming a handsome little man.

So much has changed in the last 3 weeks with his language, we find ourselves trying to forget "Alexander language." Now we just have to simply listen and he tells us as if he has been saying it right form the get go.

I cannot expressed the joy this brings to me because for so long I thought he would always be behind. This worried me greatly with him starting school in the fall, I didn't want him frustrated and hating it. I want it to bring him joy like it brings to Natalia. No parent ever wants their child to struggle, but I'm having a hard time watching both of them sprout up and take off before my eyes!

One day my kids will be independent. They wont need their mommy or daddy to give them a glass of milk, they will get it themselves. They won't need us to carry them to bed because we will be there long before they turn off the lights. So even on the hard days when Natalia is being her tuddy self and Xander just walks behind us whining all day "want you mommy!" or "want you daddy!" we remind ourselves, I will miss this when it is gone.

But I will enjoy every second of their lives!

watching her grow, loving her so. (and having a panic attack!)

Most of you may laugh and find this post silly but for me its life:

Yesterday was a dose of reality for me of just how much my little Natter Bug is growing up. We were running late for school I had playfully mentioned dropping her off at the door like most of the other parents do so she made it into chapel before school started. (I have all three kids right now so just getting them out of the car takes a few minutes) To my surprise Nat thought this was a great idea, "I can do it mom, I am a big girl." Thanks for the reminder kid, but I didn't need it. I know she is getting big, I am just not accepting it!
As I pulled up to the drop off I was thinking to myself "will she go straight to Mrs Thompson or book it else where?" There were no other cars so I thought I could stand there and watch her go in. I let her out of the car explained to her to go straight in to Mrs Thompson and let her know she was there. But again I said, "I can just run you in quick" "No, love you mom!" as Nat bolted into the worship center, straight for our friend Stacee and down the aisle...There was a car behind me now so I couldn't watch to make sure she didn't walk back out of the worship center. For all of you who know me know my anxiety got the best of me so I looped through the drop off one more time to make sure she wasn't out playing in the foyer then drove home. I immediately called John, "Please tell me I have nothing to worry about, she will go straight to Mrs T." He assured me she was a big girl and she would. "But shes only 4! I just dropped a 4 year old off and expected her to go where she needed to!" What was I thinking?!?!?
When I got home, I couldn't stop thinking about how Mrs. T had once said to me, "since I know you walk her in, if I don't see her I assume she is home for the day" So that got me thinking, what IF she DIDN'T see Nat! ARG! I text Stacee: "Good morning! Are you at school by chance this morning" She text me back, she was for a bit but not long asks me if everything is ok. I explain to her about dropping Nat off and I worry about EVERYTHING! THANK God she saw Nat said hello to her and saw her run straight to Mrs. T! Thank you Stacee for relaxing me. (and Mary as I called her in a panic too!) Mrs T told me that afternoon when I picked Nat up she had asked Nat if she came in by herself this morning. Nat had said yes. She told Nat she was a big girl and did some extra praising. Mrs T and I were thinking: This might just be the answer to our issues of her throwing a fit when I drop her off in the morning as she always wants me to stay and hang out with her at school.
So now that you are bored and laughing at me: Yesterday was a pretty big milestone for us. Our little 4 year old is our big 4 year old! It has been nothing but joy, even on the hard days, watching her grow but man it has gone by far more quickly than I ever thought it would!

A tube is out! Well, ALMOST

When Alexander saw his allergist a few weeks back he had mentioned the tube in his right ear was ready to bail! This is a good thing, means the tubes are working like they should. Well this last week he would not leave his right ear alone and then began telling me it hurt. "me ear hurt!" LOL I love the language of small kiddos! I took him in to his pediatrician yesterday, she confirmed the right tube did fall out of the ear drum but of course, nothing can be simple for Alexander and the tube is stuck in his ear. Its not a big deal, just have to put drop of hydrogen peroxide in it to loosen wax and it should fall out. It was just one of those, "of course it would be stuck, it's Alexander!" moments.

Christmas Blessings

This Christmas was truly a joy. It was so much fun this year watching the kids enjoy opening their gifts, putting milk and cookies out for Santa, waking up to their Santa gifts, and being joyful to give to others. But I must say my favorite part of Christmas this year was when Natalia told Maddie and Alexander about Jesus' birthday and the party they had for him at school. Even after the excitement of all the goodies of Christmas, she still remembered it was his birthday.
We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was a bit different than past Christmases. We usually have a bunch of people here for brunch and dinner and its a busy crazy day. This year was a bit different. We opened gifts the night before since we had people coming in the morning. We spent the morning with Johns family and my parents. It was a nice quite morning and time well spent. We had a very lazy rest of the day with everyone playing with all their new goodies. Natalia was consumed with her Camera and "computer", Alexander riding his "harley" and cat tractor, John Dangerous Hunting and flying his helicopter, Tiffany wine tasting, Nanna staying warm with her new gloves and blasting music from her new brookstone speakers (those things are LOUD!) and papa busily looking online for the best deal on a generator for the motor home. We ended our wonderful Christmas day with an amazing ham dinner! Happy Birthday Jesus! Thanks for giving us such a wonderful day!

Warm and cozy

Our children are so blessed to have a cousin who loves making things for them. These are the newest addition to their collection of hand made goodies from their cousin Rhonda and let me tell you, they LOVE them. Alexander is in love with his hat and wears it all the time. Rhonda is extremely talented and can make ANYTHING! She has even made Alexander a bi-plane.

update on Alexander

This update is for all the people who have been telling me how much they love this blog and how they love the details:

As many of you know we have battled with poor Alexander and his lack of staying "healthy" and germ free. We have been blessed with some really great doctors who are determined to give Alexander the BEST quality of life possible.

Last year when we found out Alexander was not able to hear it was heartbreaking for me as his mother because I didn't know what to do for him. We didn't know if putting tubes in his ears would help him hear again or not but luckily it did!!
At this point Alexander is hearing above average and we are focusing on catching up his speech since he was suffering from secondary hearing loss until he was 18 months. These past few weeks have been awesome. Alexander is finally starting to say two and three word sentences, which for most kids should have been happening 6-10 months ago. But hey its a long way from where he was and he is doing amazing. His favorite line right now is "baby its cold outside" or "no you stink mama" since he is almost potty trained and when he has an accident I say "wooooow you stink Alexander!" LOL The things you love when you are a mom.
Alexander will return to OHSU next months to have his hearing and ears checked once more and with all hope we will continue moving forward.

we also have had to tackle the battle of Alexander and his pesky wheezing! Which is not a fun thing to tackle while you are between insurance companies.(he now has insurance again, thank you LORD!) Luckily he has an amazing Dr who still would see him and let us make payments! She than sent us over to an allergist where we found out he has asthma and is allergic to a number of things, including some foods. Over the past three months he has been on a medication to alleviate his asthma symptoms and we have been giving him small amounts of the foods he is allergic to in order to build a tolerance. With great success the preventive medication for his asthma has been amazing. He has made is through three colds without being glued to the couch with his neb! This is a HUGE accomplishment for him. Unfortunately the food thing did not go over well, but his allergist is awesome and is not giving up. He is going to explore some other options to try and make Alexander's day to day life a bit easier. It really is awesome to have a DR care about your child as much as you do.
Need less to say: we are ironing out the wrinkles!

Chirstmas Star

This last Thursday, the 16th of December, Natalia's school had their Christmas program. Naturally this being our first "event" of this sort we had to bring the video camera and the digital camera. (also I am on the yearbook staff so...well you know me.) Anyhow, the kids did this adorable little story about the littlest christmas trees, the birds who decorated the trees, and the stars which shined from above. Natalia's class were stars and she shined so bright and was sooooooooo cute! I will post video of her song once I have it loaded on the computer :) For now please enjoy these pictures from her first little program.

Calendar

I am making calendars this year again for gifts...but this year I took the easier way out. Last years calendars were a lot of fun but boy were they messy! This is the one I made for John's office: Enjoy! (if you like to look that is)

Merry Chirstmas

First Field Trip

Natalia had her first ever field trip in school this year. They didn't go far, just up the road to the farm to pic out their pumpkins, have a little snakc, and play some games. Its such a joy to go along these field trips and see how much fun these kids have with their teacher and how every moment becomes a learning opportunity. Natalia has the best teacher for her right now and she completely adores her. I am so thankful we were able to get her into Bethel, it has made the world of difference for her. Happy Fall!

blessed are those with friends

over the past several months our family has learned, life is not as hard as we tend to think it is. Sometimes we hold onto people for the wrong reasons when it is just better to let them go and make room for the people who really matter in life.
This being said, the kids and I have made room for some really great friends in our lives both new and old and enjoy the time we have with them more and more each time we get together. It is also very nice for me to be able to break out of my box and have new friends. We have been blessed over the years with awesome friends, but it is always nice to have friends from school.
Natalia's long time friend, Maddox and his mother, Kaelish so kindly treated us to a night out at the Disney on Ice show. We had a fantastic time and again was reminded how important friends are in life. Here are a few pictures from the kids trip to the Rose Garden.

Photos By Andrea

My dear friend of 15 years so graciously took pictures of my family last night and I thought, what better time than now to finally update my blog! I know it has been a long time. Photos by Andrea is the name...and Andrea is AMAZING! She is so patient with the kids and really lets them just be them. She helps direct them but doesn't make them feel like they are being bossed around. This is the first time ever we have truly been happy with the pictures we had done and we have no regrets! Andrea will be taken many more in the future, as long as she'll take us! Here a just a handful of the pictures she took last night.
Thank you again Andrea for making out family look so darn good!