The girls had so much fun with Grandma

We were so blessed to have my mom come down for Christmas this year..The girls had so much fun with her and we hated to say goodbye to her..On our way home after we dropped her off Destiny has one small plea to all of her grandparents!!! She wants them all to move down here to SC, she misses you all!!!! We all miss you all!!




Playing Wii bowling..and yes we got her to play too..lol



Playing pretty, pretty, princess:)) (i know u will love this mom)


Baking christmas cookies


Making a gingerbread house

Christmas

Just a few pictures from Christmas..one is a picture of all the cousins that are in south carolina..

How do you get a 1 1/2 year old to take medicine???

Alright everyone i am having a time and half trying to get Avery to take her antibiotic medicine..and am getting really frustrated with it..she is a VERY stubborn little girl..i think we will have our hands full when she gets older:)) Well i have tried to take it will a spoonful of sugar but she dont like the grainy stuff in her mouth..and then we have tried blowing in her face to make her swallow well she just hold's it in her cheek..we have tried her head all the way back with holding her cheeks in to make her swallow..and we have tried giving it mixed with food or liquid but she picks it up and then wont finish eating or drinking..The mucinex that we are suppose to be giving her to well that wasnt going so well so i found it in the melt aways well she doesnt like them either..she spits them out one little white pebble at a time:)) so how is she suppose to get better if she doesnt get any medicine in her....so i am really open to all suggestions from anybody:)))!!!!!

Out of the mouth of Destiny

I have to share with all of you a story out of the mouth of my 7 yr old..I went to her school the other day to eat lunch with her they were having a holiday lunch. Well anyways as i was waiting in line her teacher came up to me..She says i have to tell you what destiny said the other day..im thinking oh great....bc you never do know:)) Well anyways she told me that Destiny was telling her class about her family and she started talking Avery. Avery is my baby sister and I love her so much. and then she told them that she has down syndrome. But she quickly added thats ok bc I still love her bc she is really special and God made her just the way that she is and she is special to me..Her teacher said it was so sweet she almost started to cry..Of course when she is telling me this my eyes start to water..I am really a cry baby too though:)) but my heart just melt..

It has hit our house!!!!

Well the sickness stuff has officially hit our house. Thursday afternoon Avery started to get a high fever..and it just started to go down hill since then.. I took her to the doctor on Friday bc i didn't like the way she was breathing and she was so congested when she coughed..Well she still had her ear infection in the same ear that she had a previous infection..the fluid still hadn't gone away. ( i had taken her in two week earlier and she had an ear infection and had just gotten of that antibiotic)I was a little bugged that there was still fluid in her ear..He had also said that she had a respiratory infection..but not pneumonia..Well we had a very long night!!! She kept waking up and screaming and pulling her legs up to her chest..so she is in pain but i don't know why..I know she cant be constipated bc she has not eaten(she dont want to eat) anything to have any waste and she had diarrhea on Thursday..Her breathing has gotten worse i think..its very short and weezy..we basically have to keep motrin in her every 4 hours to keep her fever down a little bit.. poor baby..hopefully it doesnt spread and she gets over it by christmas..

O Christmas Tree

Happy Birthday Brielle!!

Its hard to believe that Brielle is already 5!!! (well its been a week already..im a little behind..)) Whew...She wanted a polly pocket cake so i tried pretty hard to make her a pretty polly pocket cake..its a little polly pocket car on the cake..she realy liked it anyway..and i guess that is all that matters:)) I gained another kid too...Baby Alive..lol!!!! The things that dolly does i cant belive..well anyways it keeps her entertained through out the day so i guess mission accomplished!!!

This ones for Grandpa and Grandma West

Heres a few pictures of the twins..thought you'd like to see:)))

(The carseat covers and blankets my mother in law made..she actually has a section in a store in watertown..Moobugs:))

Our Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving. It was my turn to make the turkey. Luckily it wasnt for too many people. It was our family and then two of Jared's brothers and two of his cousins. I was the only girl besides my girls i guess... I finally got to sit down at 3:00 after it was all clean..whew!! I was tired.. I did my first brine on a turkey this year...yummy it was very good!! I Then later the rest of the family came over for pie.
Avery fell asleep in her high chair eating turkey...with a piece in her mouth..haha!! Then jared decided to be funny and load her tray up with all sorts of food and take a picture:P
(sorry this is a little late but my computer was having issues)

Avery almost walking

Here's a video of Avery taking a couple of steps....The past couple of days Avery has been getting braver and braver!! She first started to stand up all the way from sitting from the middle of the floor without using anything on Thanksgiving..then the past couple of days she decided to add a couple of steps..She gets so excited..and when she falls down she says "bump". She is also signing "eat" at the end but she was suppose to be doing "more"..she gets confused sometimes bc usually when we say "more" its always right before eat..like "more to eat"..She is doing really good with signs..she can do mama now ( i taught her that bc she stopped saying mama instead she says baba) she can also do bath too..she loves baths!! Anyways maybe within a couple of weeks you'll be seeing a video of her walking all over the place:D

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Sophie's Angels

We had our church Christmas bazaar this last weekend and Katie Rajala and there family were selling Sophie's Angels Christmas ornaments as a fundraiser for there adoption of Sophie. Well just wanted to let you all know and she is still selling them. Hopefully soon she will have her own blog set up but not sure when..I need to help her do that:))
I had to get three for each of my girls(hey there is a story behind the ornament, and i always get them a ornament each year anyways). Destiny was so sweet..She was at the bazaar with me and i was trying to explain Sophie's story to her..
Destiny asks "Why doesn't she have a mom and dad, mom"
The things kids have got to ask and we have to explain..I tell ya..whew its tough being a parent..but i think i did a good job. She was happy with my explanation.
Destiny says "Mom that is sad..we need to help her so she can have a mom and dad soon" I get teary eye all over again if only it was that easy..

All in a day's time..

Just in case you all wonder what i do everyday..



She loves to empty my container cupboard and the cover drawer...and then drag them all over the house:))

It was quiet and I couldnt find Dolly(our nickname for her) and I found her in the pantry digging in the chips.

Here mom you can have one...

Cheese Mom!!!

Help Bring Sophie Ruslana Home

If you remember a few posts back I was telling you about the family from church that committed to the little girl to bring her home. Well she has wrote up a letter and I would like to share it with all of you.

This is Ruslana,(hopefully soon to be Sophie Ruslana). She is living in an orphanage in Eastern Europe and has down syndrome. For those of you who don't know me I am Katie (Coponen) and my husband is Cliff Rajala Jr. We have four teenage children. Sonya 16, Cody 15, Samantha 14, and Corey 13(I was unable to have any more children because of medical complications)
One day I was led to view a website called Reece's Rainbow. Cliff and I have always thought we would adopt, but the subject of special needs children just hadn't come up. When I saw this little girl on the site, I fell in love and just KNEW that she belongs in our family. I showed her to Cliff and the kids and they felt in love with her too.
I contacted the lady on the site to inquire about her, and was told almost immediately that if we were interested in adopting her, we would have to act quickly because she is scheduled to go to an institution in January. They needed to know if they had a committed family so she could be held where she is until her forever family could come and get her. We as a family truly believe that God has led us here. There is such a peace about making her part of our family that could only come from Him.
It is very expensive to adopt from these countries, mainly because of mountains of paperwork and travel (twice). The first time, is to go where she is and spend two weeks with her. We need to cover the cost of the trip and where we will stay while spending time with this little angel. They then set a court date approximately two weeks later, and we will be able to pick her up.
God is so good to have blessed us with this miracle but, we do need your help. If you are so led, you could make a donation towards the cost of the adoption:) There is a Rajala family page at www.reecesrainbow.org (go to support an adopting family, then new commitments).You could also donate directly to us. All donations will be confidential. We also have a Sophie adoption fund at Eastside Apostolic Lutheran Church(please make checks payable to EALC. The donations to either of these places will be tax deductible. If we receive more money than we need to cover our costs, it will be donated to more children with disabilities on the Reece's Rainbow website. Please make sure you earmark checks to Sophie's adoption fund. All checks can be mailed directly to this address Sophies Adoption Fund 127 Plantation Dr. Greer, SC 29651. If you are unable to help at this time, PLEASE remember Sophie and us in your thoughts and prayers. Also please pray for all the orphans that will be institutionalized. Once they are in an institution (which is 4 yrs.) many of them don't survive.
If you can, please help us to bring our new little girl home as soon as possible.
Thank you and God's Peace
The Cliff Rajala Family

Announcing Southern Grace Photography :))

Hello everyone!! For those of you that don't know I am trying to make a go of my passion for photography. So I have created a different blogspot/website for my photography business:)) Just to try to keep it separate. I had my first client over the weekend.. I was pretty excited and nervous at the same time but I am glad that I got the first one over with ..wheew!!!!
Anyways the site is www.southerngracephotography.blogspot.com

The twins

The twins are here..Jared's brother Brian (which is a twin also) and his wife Lorrinda had there twins. She had them at 35 weeks. The babies are doing wonderful and they think they will get to go home on Monday..It was so weird to see two babies in the baby hospital bed:D

Girl:Kaysha Vivian-weight:5lbs1oz length:19"
Boy:Canyon Brian-weight:4lbs15oz length:18"


Avery and Kaysha..she kept saying baby..baby..she liked the babies:D


Kaysha

Kaysha


Canyon

Canyon

L: Canyon R:Kaysha

L: Canyon R:Kaysha


L:Kaysha R: Canyon

I love FALL!!!

This past weekend we went up to Caesar's Head to look at and admire all the trees.. According to the girls we were on top of the tallest mountain ever.. The actual elevation is 3266ft. So anyways you'll never guess what happen to me..I was really looking forward to going to the top of the mountain and play with my camera and hopefully get some pretty cool shots. Well we stop off at Bald Rock which is this rock that you can walk down or fall down and get killed literally..It is this really steep, steep rock. It is kind of hard to explain and i wish I had the pictures to show but I go to take my first picture and my battery's dead.. You have got to be kidding me..Aaarrgghhh!!! Well luckily my wonderful daughter Destiny brought her camera so we used hers..But after a few pictures her battery went dead..well i almost gave up but then my other wonderful daughter Brielle brought her kiddie camera (my kids like to take pictures too:))so we have a have way faded picture that she took and it didn't really turn out. Well we get back in the van and head up to Caesars Head and I realize my hubby brought our old camera..YES!! I am in luck. So I use his camera to grab a few shots of our trip to the tallest mountain:)) By the way on the way home I was checking out Destiny's pictures on her camera and I accidentally deleted all of her pictures so we got none from the cool bald rock..sorry:( I also had a very upset daughter:(

Avery's swallow study

Well we went today for Avery's swallow study. It was pretty intertesting to say the least. They wanted me to bring Avery tired bc then her muscles dont work as good. They also wanted me to bring her hungry so she would drink/eat the stuff. Well i brought her good and cranky:)) So anyways everything that they had her try had the barrium in it. The food and the liquid. But for the most part everything looked good. She wasnt asperating when she was drinking liquids. She showed some signs of choking on the liquids when she drank them from a straw. Mainly bc she dont know to stop when drinking from a straw and gets to much and then starts coughing or choking on the liquid. When she drank the liquid from her sippy cup she did better. She didnt choke. So we are just going to stick with the sippy cup for now and no straws and I dont have to thicken her liquids anymore!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am really excited about that if you can't tell.. The other thing is that the dr. did see acid refulx and gurgling away basically in there..he wasnt suppose tobe looking for that but he just stated the obvious i guess. So that might lead us on another trail with the dr. We will have to see. I am a little worried that they are going to want to put her on reglan. I had been giving that prescription before but i never filled it up bc i read TOO MANY horror stories. THe side effects are really promising.. They have alot of side effects..so i am back to waying my options. What do i do??? Well that is the jiff of it but I had a hard time listening to them bc Avery was not really cooperating with them or me so as they are trying to talk to me I am trying to take care of a cranky/hungry baby. But they are suppose to get me the report and some pictures of the study so will let you know more if there is any more to know.
p.s. i need to feed her barrium more often it makes her go poop right away:))) Never would have ot worry about constipation.

Our day today

Avery had a Dr. appointment today..The special needs Dr/nutritionist that we go see every 6 weeks. The good news is that she has really gained weight..She is at 23lbs 12oz..The Dr was really impressed with that..The other good news is that we finally get to decrease her pediasure to one bottle a day which is 8oz..we were at 3 bottles a day..that stuff really does work!!! It has alot of extra calories..We have to make sure that she don't gain to much weight at one time now...I have stopped thickening her liquids about a couple of weeks ago bc Avery just decided that she really didn't like it too much anymore..Well the Dr wasn't that impressed with that..Avery was kind of razzy noisy breathing when we were in there which has been going on for awhile..They have always told me that the breathing was bc of the acid reflux. So with her breathing and her not having her liquids thicken she wants Avery to go get a swallow study done at the hospital. So we are scheduled to do that on Friday already..They also want to make sure that she don't have respiratory pneumonia.

Avery also had her two therapies today..pt and ot. THey have been working on stairs and walking in PT. She is crawling upstairs but dont know how to get back down. She is also cruising really fast around things and will stand for a few seconds by herself or stand with her back against something..She loves to walk. I think she will be walking pretty soon.How exciting is that!!! In OT they are working more on fine motor skills like shape sorter and pushing buttons with pointer finger and we found out Avery hates playdough. She must not like the texture. She threw it almost as fast as they put it in her hand. So I guess we will start working on introducing different textures and stuff like that in OT.

Avery learned about gravity the other day. She took a nose dive over the chair and into the toy box. I was really worried about her neck but she seems to be doing fine..Her face got pretty bruised up and her tummy got all marked up too.

I am having a really hard time keeping her out of the candy bowl too. She LOVES the suckers!!! She even likes them with the wrapper on so of course i just let her have her fun with wrapper on less mess:))

I guess sometimes you get to teach your children a valuable lesson out of a grocery shopping trip..While we were in the front part of our grocery store we were standing in the entryway I was looking at the ad and there were some advertised food out in the entry way (dumb idea in the first place bc you cant see out there from inside the store) but anyways there was a lady there and she thought she was being sneaky and acted like she was looking at the bag well anyways she started to walk away with it and then Destiny said "that lady just walked outside with the food mom wihtout paying for it" So i go and tell someone that is working but by the time i found someone and told them and went back to the parking lot she was gone of course..she got away with a bag of chex mix..was it really worth it??!! No, but my children did learn a good lesson at the grocery store that I am sure they wont forget:))

Here's a picture of Averys face after the fall and her enjoying her suckers with the wrapper on :D

Avery