Summer Vacation

Well, our summer has gone by fast and furious, but it has been a lot of fun! The kids went to a bunch of camps this year. Kaytlyn went to softball camp, church camp, and volleyball camp. I think she has found a new sport she really loves! She still loves softball, but she has really enjoyed volleyball (playing and watching the Olympics!). Gage went to baseball camp and has really improved.

We went to Dallas/Ft Worth for vacation a couple of weeks ago. We stayed a couple of days at Great Wolf Lodge, which was a blast!! Kaytlyn and Gage were big enough to go down all the big slides, so Joseph and I would take turns going with them while the other one stayed with Cooper. Cooper didn't feel left out, though. There was PLENTY for him to do and he loved every minute of it! We pretty much went non-stop there for 2 days and we really wore the kids out!

Cooper playing with a water fountain

Kaytlyn and Gage having fun

Told you we wore them out!

The next day we went to Legoland in the Grapevine Mills Mall. That was a lot of fun! There was a lot more to do there than I thought. The kids got to build cars out of Legos and race them, ride a Harry Potter-type ride, shot bad guys and try to save the Lego princess, sing kareokee (sp?), drive a Lego car, and watch a 4-D movie. We left Legoland to go eat lunch in the food court of the mall and Cooper fell asleep in my lap. I stayed there while he slept and Joseph, Kaytlyn, and Gage went back to Legoland. Cooper ended up sleeping for an hour! He was wiped!

Waiting to go into Legoland

Joseph helping the kids build Lego cars to race

After we left Legoland, we headed to Arlington to watch the Rangers play. It was "autograph Wednesday", so we stood in line to get David Murphy's autograph. We had season tickets from a company Joseph does business with, so we were able to get in early, so we were about 10th in line. It was SO hot, but it was worth it. While we were waiting, Joseph taught Cooper to say "Hi David Murphy!" I told the kids that he probably wouldn't speak to them and he would be signing fast and furious. When he signed Kaytlyn and Gage's balls, he just signed them and handed them back to them and didn't say anything. But when he signed Cooper's ball, Cooper said "Hi David Murphy!" in the cutest voice! David looked up with the biggest grin on his face and said "Well hi, buddy!" and gave Cooper a high five. It was so cute! Now every time Cooper sees David Murphy on TV, he says "It's my good friend, David Murphy!" After getting the autographs, we went to our seats, which were EXCELLENT! We were 5 rows behind the Rangers dugout. Kaytlyn and Gage stood by the dugout before the game trying to get autographs. Kaytlyn was able to get Tanner Schepper (closing pitcher)'s autograph. Gage wasn't patient enough (big shocker!). When the game was fixing to start, Mike Napoli was hanging out in the dugout. He wasn't playing in this game, so he turned around and offered to sign a few autographs. Kaytlyn and Gage were able to make their way over there and he signed their balls for them. Kaytlyn was so excited! He is her favorite player. The game ended up being a really good one since they beat the Red Sox.

Getting David Murphy's autograph

Our family before the ballgame

The next day we went to the Ft Worth Zoo. It was really nice, but it was SOOOO hot! The kids enjoyed seeing all the animals, though. We went to a show and Cooper even got to be part of the show! He was a "suspect" in the case of the missing star. He was pretty funny! Kaytlyn got a good scare as she came face to face with a HUGE crocodile. We all got a good laugh out of it! We loved watching the cute monkeys and the elephants got baths while we were there. When we left the zoo, we went to stay with my Aunt Donna and Uncle Rod. We love them so much, but unfortunately don't get to see them as often as we'd like. We had a great time visiting with them!

The kids with Aunt Donnie and Uncle Rod

It was a great vacation! The kids had a great time and so did Joseph and I! It was a jam packed week, but it was a lot of fun!

We have less than 3 weeks until school starts back. I can't believe it! The summer has flown by. But we are ready to go. Got all our school supplies, back to school clothes, and shoes bought and ready. Kaytlyn is ready to start 5th grade in the middle school, but Gage on the other hand is not very excited about starting a new school year. :)

Hope everyone else is having a great summer!

















6 Weeks Seizure Free! (and Spring sports)

Since the last time I posted about Cooper's seizures, he had 3 more within the next 2 weeks. After the last one, the doctor doubled his medication dose instead of just upping it .5 mL like he had been. That was 6 weeks ago! It's been so nice. I've still been a little leary, but I've been able to relax a little.

We went to see his neurologist today for a check-up. He said to just keep giving him the dose he's been on and to call if he has any more seizures. He said if he were to have more, we could up his dose a couple more times, then we would have to consider a different medicine. But so far, this dose seems to be doing the trick. He wants Cooper to go 1 year seizure free before he will consider weaning him off the meds. So keep up the prayers for a seizure-free year! :)

We've had a busy spring! Gage played baseball and Kaytlyn played softball again. Gage LOVED baseball! At the beginning of the season, he was jumping out of the batter's box and scared of the ball. By the end of the season, he was smacking the ball every at bat! He was named "Most Improved Player" on his team! He was even playing in the infield and making outs! So proud of him! Kaytlyn played catcher all season and did great! It amazes me how much they improve in such a short period of time. She loves it and I hope she continues to stick with for a long time.

Gage in his Yankees uniform

Kaytlyn in "Beast Mode"!

Kaytlyn has a softball tournament next week then we will be done with sports for a while. She's had softball camp this week and Gage is going to baseball camp next week. We had a crazy last few weeks of school, but now we are ready for summer and hoping to relax a little (we'll see!). Hope everyone has a great summer!

Cooper Update and Easter

I haven't updated on Cooper's condition in a while, so I thought I'd let everyone know where we are right now. In my last post Cooper had had a seizure at church the last Sunday of spring break. I called his neurologist the next day and he said to up his dose of meds by half a mL. So we did and he went almost a week with no problems. Then that Saturday we went to the spring Texas Tech football game and during the game he began to seize again. Luckily we were in the club box, so we were able to get him inside and lay him down on the floor. It lasted about 3 minutes and then he stopped and fell asleep. He slept the rest of the game (about an hour) then he was fine. We went home for a little bit and then went to the Tech baseball game. About half way through the game, while eating nachos, he began to seize again. This time we didn't really have any place to take him, so laid him down in my lap across the bench. My biggest fear was that he had nachos left in his mouth and was going to choke. Thank goodness he didn't. It lasted about 2 minutes this time and then he slept it off for about 30 minutes. Then he woke up and was fine. He wanted to eat the rest of his nachos. Then, on the drive home from the game, he seized again for a 3rd time! We were only a couple of blocks from the house, so I told Joseph just to get home and then we could take him out of his booster seat. We pulled in the driveway and I jumped out and unstrapped him and put him in my lap. He stopped shortly after that, so it didn't last very long. I carried him in the house and sat on the couch with him while he slept. I called the doctor's service and talked to the operator. Our doctor called us back and said to give him a double dose of meds that night and then up it another half mL starting the next day. Everything was back to normal the next day (except that he was still being very hyper and acting very odd because of the drugs). We went a week and a half with no problems and then this past Wednesday I had a GYN appointment, so I left him at my neighbors house thinking that he would be fine leaving him for an hour or so. When I was leaving the dr office, I texted my neighbor to see if she wanted a Sonic drink and everything was fine at that point and she said yes, so I stopped at Sonic. When I got to her house, she opened the door and I could tell by her face something had happened. She said he had a seizure after I had texted her. She said he started shaking and fell over, so she put him on his side but he kept trying to reach out and grab toys. When he stopped shaking, he got up and starting walking around in circles but his eyes weren't really focusing on anything and he wasn't talking. She tried to get him to lay down so he could sleep it off, but he wouldn't. He went in the living room and hung upside down from the chair, so she got him down and turned on cartoons so he might lay down. I showed up at this point and he ran to me fussing, but he never said anything. He wouldn't talk to me and was very fussy, so I said let's go home. I told him to tell his friends by and he tried to say it, but it came out kind of garbled. We went to the house and sat on the couch. I turned on cartoons and got his blanket. He snuggled up to me and tried to say "Mommy", but again, it came out slurred. He quickly fell asleep then and slept it off for about an hour. I called his doctor again and they told me to up his meds again. That night, I thought he and I would stay home while Kaytlyn, Gage, and Joseph went to church, but he began to cry because he really wanted to go to church, so I agreed to let him go, but I was going to go to class with him. He was fine during class. After church, there was a meeting for the Bible Bowl kids and their parents, so I went with Kaytlyn and Joseph took the boys to play on the playground until we were done. When we came out, we walked to the car, but the boys weren't there. I remembered they were at the playground, so we walked across the parking lot towards them. I noticed Joseph was crouching on the ground and then I noticed Cooper on the ground and could tell he was seizing. I ran over to help Joseph. He was shaking and staring off into space, but his hands kept trying to grasp something. At one point he grabbed a handful of gravel and tried to put it in his mouth. He rolled over and it was like he was trying to look at me, but he couldn't. Then he tried to get up, so Joseph picked him up and he was fussing. So we went to the car and he fell asleep in the car.  I called the doctor the next day, but they didn't want to up his dose again yet since I hadn't given him the upped dose since the last time I called them. He did think we needed to start him on B-6 to help with his odd behavior. So we started him on the upped dose and a B-6 pill with each dose.  That's been 6 days and so far so good. The B-6 has done wonders for his behavior! He seems to be back to his old self. We continue to pray that we get the drug dosage correct so we can get these seizures under control.

We had a great Easter weekend. We got a nice surprise when my brother, Randy, decided to come to our house Thursday evening and rode with us to the ranch Friday. We spent Friday night at the ranch and then Saturday we had a full house! My sister-in-law, Kim, my niece, Paisley, Kim's mom, Kim's sister, Joseph's brother, Tim, his wife, Misty, my niece Brooklyn, Misty's mom and her mom's male friend, Misty's grandmother, Joseph's mom, and my mom and dad all came out. The bluebonnets were BEAUTIFUL so we took the cousins out to the pasture to take pictures. That was interesting! 5 kids ages 10 years old to 9 months; trying to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time...ARGH!!! We managed to get a couple of acceptable pictures. Then we went back to the house and had lunch - ham, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, salad, broccoli and rice casserole, corn casserole, and desert. YUM!! After lunch we had an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Brooklyn and Paisley went first and then my kids hunted their eggs. Brooklyn really got the hang of picking them up and putting them in her bucket. Kim would hold Paisley over the eggs to pick them up and she would grab her ear everytime they bent over. It was pretty funny. Everyone left after the egg hunt and we went fishing that evening. Joseph was the only one to catch a fish and then a big storm blew in. It brought a little bit of pea size hail, but a LOT of rain. It was so wonderful to go to sleep that night listening to the rain fall on the roof. The next morning we went to church with Joseph's mom and then came back to the ranch for lunch. The kids dyed Easter eggs while Joseph and I packed up our stuff and loaded the car. After they decorated their eggs, Uncle Randy went and hid them all around outside the house. Kaytlyn and Gage took their BB guns and went on a real egg "hunt". They had a blast! Then we headed back to Lubbock.

This was probably the best picture of the 5 of them I was able to get.

My precious kiddos!

I have a lot more pictures, but for some reason my blog isn't cooperating and letting me post them. Oh well. They're on my facebook page if you're interested.



I'll try to update again before long on how Cooper is doing. Please keep him in your prayers in the mean time. We really appreciate it!

Spring Break

What a great week! It went by WAY too fast! We always love going out to our ranch to just "get away from it all" and relax. We got there Friday night and Saturday it rained all day; even thunder stormed off and on causing us to loose power a couple of times. So we pretty much stayed in the ranch house all day. That's ok with the kids because even though we don't get TV channels out there, we have an "old school" Nintendo and they love playing the old Mario Bros. My brother-in-law (Tim), his wife (Misty), and their sweet baby (my niece, Brooklyn) came down and stayed the night with us. Luckily the sun came out Sunday and we were able to get out of the house.
Joseph and Tim got up early Sunday morning and took a ride around the ranch in a helicopter. Hunters had paid to hunt on the property from the helicopter and Joseph and Tim had to show the pilot where the boundaries to the property are. They had a great time and even saw an elk on the property! The hunters shot a few coyotes and wild pigs.
My mom, dad, brother (James), sister-in-law (Kami), and nieces and nephew (Kristin, Kaci, and Keller) all came out to the ranch to go fishing and riding horses. It was a beautiful day and the kids enjoyed being outside. Fishing wasn't so good, though. Kristin caught a fish, but that was the only one. It was still a little early in the year for fishing.

The beautiful pastures at the ranch

Cooper, Kaci, and Keller playing on the 4-wheeler

Gage fishing

Kaytlyn fishing

Kaci and Keller playing in an old car

The kids feeding the baby lambs

Kristin, Mimi (Joseph's mom), and Kaytlyn feeding a baby lamb

The rest of the week we worked a lot of cows! Lots of spring time baby calves that needed to be worked as well as the hefers. Joseph and his brother, Mark, would get the cows and calves rounded up and in the pens and then the kids and I would go out and help work them. The kids LOVE helping work the cows. Kaytlyn loves to brand and she has gotten really good at it. She can do it all on her own without any help. Gage loves to help daddy push the calves into the squeeze chute to be worked. He got kicked a couple of times, but not too bad, though - just a little bruise. He's a tough cowboy! Cooper still isn't brave enough to help work the cows, but he watches. I was the "shot giver" (gave the calves their vaccines). Mark castrated and de-horned. It was a family affair!



Gage pushing a calf into the chute

Kaytlyn branding a calf; Mark holding the calf down

Cooper may not have wanted to work the calves, but he helped push them into the pen.

Friday we took a break from all the cow working and went to the Abilene Zoo with Tim, Misty, Brooklyn, Misty's mom, and Misty's grandmother. It was windy and overcast, but overall, it was a pretty day and the kids had a blast.

Joseph and Cooper looking at the giant turtle.

The kids looking at the birds.

Looking at the animals.

Feeding the giraffes

Cooper, Gage, and Kaytlyn

Cooper and his cousin, Brooklyn

After we had lunch we went back to the ranch and went fishing that night.  Again, not any luck catching fish, but it was still fun.  The sunset on the tank was beautiful.  Mark, Kim (my sister-in-law), and Paisley (their baby) came out to hang out with us.



Kim, Paisley, and Mark

On Saturday my parents came back out and we took my mom's metal detector and went "treasure hunting". The kids loved it! Everytime the metal detector beeped, they couldn't wait to get out their tools and start digging. We found several pieces of old scrap metal, a couple of old bullets, and a horse shoe.

Finding treasure!

The boys decided to have a sword fight. I guess the treasure hunting made them feel like pirates!

Sunday we went to Joseph's mom's church with his brother, Tim, Misty, Brooklyn, and Misty's grandmother. I'd like to say it was a nice morning at church, but just as the sermon started, Cooper had another seizure while Joseph was holding him. We quickly took him out to the nursery and laid him on the floor. He was gnashing his teeth pretty hard, so I was worried he would bite his tongue. We put him on his side, but he thrashed back to his back. We put him back on his side and he finally started to slow down. He took a few gaspy breathes and then fell asleep. I sat in the nursery with him while he slept it off during church. He slept a little more in the car on our way to lunch, but once we got to the restaurant, he was awake and feeling fine. We all went to lunch and we were joined by Misty's mom, Mark, Kim, and Paisley. We even got a family picture while we were there.

Back row (l to r): Gage, Joseph, Kay (Joseph's mom), Tim, Mark

Bottom row (l to r): Kaytlyn, me, Cooper, Misty, Brooklyn, Kim, and Paisley

We all went back to the ranch after that and the kids rode Corndog (our horse) one last time before we had to head back home. It was a wonderful week that seemed to be over way too quickly! Now it's back to life - work, school, and the day to day. We have a busy week ahead of us, too. Baseball and softball all week. Let the craziness begin! :)







Been a LONG time since I posted!

Hello to all!
I know it has been a really long time since I posted, but what can I say...I have 3 kids, a husband, a dog, a fish, a house that is dirty 90% of the time, and a million other things going on.
Well, I can't really go into great detail about everything that has happened since the last post, because that would take me a week to type, but I'll hit the high lights. As per usual, things have been really busy for the Bunting clan. Kaytlyn is in 4th grade and is a super smarty pants.  She is a straight A student and she participated in UIL this year and placed 2nd in Creative Writing and 2nd in Number Sense (math). She should be starting softball any day (that is, as long as her arm is healed!) She broke her wrist about a month ago playing kickball in the driveway with Gage.  She didn't have to have it casted, but it's been in a brace since then and we go back tomorrow to have it re-xray'd to make sure it's healed (or at least healing). She is very ready to get it off! Gage is in 1st grade and is also doing very well.  He is also a straight A student.  He just started baseball practice this past week.  This is his first year to play, so I was a little worried about how he would do, but he is picking it up great!
Cooper is 4 now and still stays at home with me.  We do "Mommy school" each day and he is learning his numbers, letters, letter sounds, and simple addition. We've had some craziness the past few days with Cooper.  Over a year ago, he had a couple of seizures.  We took him to a neurologist and had 2 EEG's done, an MRI, and a catscan and never got an answer as to what was going on.  He hadn't had another one until this past Saturday night where he had one in the kitchen while I was cooking dinner.  It was pretty bad and he stopped breathing for a minute, but he finally stopped and slept it off for about 30 minutes.  Then he had another one early Monday morning in his bed.  We called his doctor and took him in to have another EEG.  We saw the neurologist today and he said there were some abnormalities with the EEG (his words were "markers" in his brain activity that would trigger the onset of seizures), so he put him on twice daily anti-seizure medication. If they seizures continue, we'll have to up his dose, but hopefully it will stop them.  If he can go 6 months seizure free the doctor will consider taking him off the meds. It is the scariest thing to watch your child go through something like that and feel so totally helpless.  I'm just glad we got some sort of answer and now we can do something about it.
That is about it for now. I will try harder to update more often (I have a new computer that is MUCH faster than my old one!). We are looking forward to spring break next week and I'll try to post pictures when we get back. Hope everyone enjoys their spring break!

My Granny

My Granny (my mom's mother) was a wonderful woman! She was sweet and loving and the best grandmother. She passed away from breast cancer when I was in college. I think of her often and have such fond memories of our time together.

                                               This is me and my Granny on my first birthday.

As I said before, I think of her often. There are many things that trigger memories of her. When my kids fight, I sometimes remember the way she would make me and my brothers resolve conflict - we had to sit in opposite corners of the room and make silly faces at each other until we were no longer mad at each other and we were laughing.  The Sunbonnet Sue quilt she made me when I was 4 hangs on the wall in my daughter's room.  Whenever I eat a fresh tomatoe right out of the garden, I think of her garden and how she had fresh sliced tomatoes on the table at every meal. When I see a picture, ceramic figure, or stuffed animal that is a mouse, especially at Christmas time, I think of her massive mouse collection.  It started when she wrote a poem about Christmas with her family from the point of view of the mouse in the house. From then on, we all gave her mice whenever we found them.

There are many, many more things that make me think of her, but the strongest memories always seem to come from being with my children, even though she never got to meet them. All of my kids, but my boys in particular, have always loved for me to lay down in their beds with them and sing them to sleep. I have always loved to sing and have sang to all my children since they were born. I was not much of a lullaby singer, but I sang slow church/gospel songs to them. As I laid in bed with my youngest son yesterday trying to get him to take a nap, I was singing to him and had a very strong memory of my Granny. She used to always sing old hymns while she quilted or sitting on the porch shelling peas. Towards the end of her life, she was put in hospice due to the nature of her cancer. I went to visit her while she was there and sat by her bedside. I will never forget holding her hand and singing the hymns to her while she laid there with her eyes closed. Everytime I thought she was asleep and stopped singing, she would lift one eyelid and look at me in a way that said "Why did you stop?" and I would begin again. She was there for me my whole life, giving me love and other things I needed (and spoiled me with lots of things I didn't necessarily need!)...I'm so glad I could be there for her in her last moments on this earth. She was such a good, Godly woman - I know she is with our Father in heaven watching over us now.

I love you, Granny! Glad you're mine!

Mother's Day 2011

I had such a wonderful Mother's Day this year!  I have the most wonderful children and husband in the world!  We didn't get up to go to church because I was not feeling real well and I was super tired because I hadn't slept good the past couple of nights, so Joseph and the kids got up and made me breakfast and brought it to me in bed.  What a great way to wake up!!  They made me eggs, sausage, and toast.  It was delicious!  Then the kids piled on the bed and gave me their presents.  Kaytlyn had a small flower plant in a pot that she had painted and a handmade card.  Gage's teacher made a necklace with his picture on it for me and he made a little booklet called "Hats Off To Mom".  Then sweet little Cooper made me a card that he drew a flower on.

Then I laid around while the kids and Joseph cleaned the house (sort of! It was their version of clean!) and then we had a family game of Uno.  The kids played outside after that filling up water balloons to have a water balloon fight while Joseph cleaned the pool.  Then Joseph cooked me a wonderful dinner that evening!  He made steak, shrimp, asparagus, and rosemary potatoes.  YUMMY!!  Then he got a cherry cheesecake for dessert (my favorite!).  We played another round of Uno after dinner then the kiddos went to bed.

I'm so blessed to have my family.  God truely had a plan when I met Joseph and He sent us our 3 beautiful children!  :)