Petsel Family Blog

I’m so glad its warm now. I could do without all the rain, although i haven’t had to water my lawn yet this year, or my flowers for that matter. I love walking around my house and seeing all the flowers blooming. My grass is finally looking good (after three years of seeding and reseeding) which I am happy about. I hope one day to have one of those really nice manicured lawns. But it takes a lot of work and money so I just do it a little at a time.

We have been keeping busy though. March 5th Blane turned 5 (yikes!) and March 30 Blake turned 7. We celebrated their birthday together at their house. It was funny - it’s kind of a family tradition to have your face smashed in the cake, but since no one smashed their face in the cake they decided they would do it themselves.

In april, we had a bachelorette party for my cousin, Emily. We all rode the train from Jeff City to Herman. We had a blast. We hung out at Hermannhof winery during the day and partied at their lovely bar (ha!) at night. I would tell you how much fun it was, but what happens in Herman stays in Herman. Even the pictures are top secret!

On May 3rd, Emily and Brendan tied the knot. Isabella was the minuture bride. She looked so grown up and she actually wore the dress (I didn’t know if she would) and happily walked down the isle. I have no idea how good the ceremony was because I had to take a restless Isabella out of church who remembered their was a sub sandwich in the back room and wanted some of it. I hope to see the video soon. But the reception and dance was wonderful. The food was especially delicious and the cake Doris made was yummy too! (I had two pieces!) Isabella had no nap that day and was running on fumes by the time the dance started. She stayed afloat until about 9 pm and then fell asleep in “Ma’s” (that’s what Isabella calls my grandma) lap.

second cousin Blake and Izzy

Emily and Izzy

Emily and Izzy before wedding

Emily and Izzy dancing

The minuture bride, Isabella Rose

Our session at Cedar creek ended in May. Isabella misses riding her horse, Claudia. The last day of class they had a little horse show and presented each student with a ribbon. Isabella’s was awarded for “best following directions” We are allowed to ride two sessions, so we opted to take the summer off and ride again in the fall.

Izzy on horse, Claudia

I am glad spring is finally over. (I hope!) Although, I will have to say that last winter was worst on us then this winter. At least, we got out more this winter. But now I am looking forward to getting back into my gardening. We had a good Christmas. We had my family over for Christmas Eve and then on Christmas Day Isabella and I went to Kansas City to see my Dad’s side of the family. I got to meet the newest addition to the family, Carter. He was born last April to my aunt Mendi and her husband Kai. They live in Hawaii so we don’t get to see them very often.

In January, Isabella started speech therapy. She has trouble with articulation. The only Consonants she says are “m” and “n”. (And sometimes those aren’t very good either) One of her problems is she does not close her lips to talk and we are working on that. It has helped a lot, but I have a feeling she will be in speech therapy a long time. But they said the sooner they get help the better. I will be glad when I no longer have to translate everything she says to other people.

At the end of January we attended the craniofacial team at MU. We saw numerous doctors regarding her progress. She will go again in six months and then hopefully just once a year after that. They like to keep track of their kids and it is nice to get the opinions of multiple doctors on various issues. They consult at the end on all the kids they saw that night and then they mail you their report. They discussed taking out her feeding tube and clipping her tongue to help with speech.

In February, my aunts and I give my cousin, Emily a Pampered Chef wedding shower. We all had fun and I think Emily got some good gadgets for her new kitchen. Isabella is going to be a miniature bride in her wedding in May. Emily’s aunt, Doris made Isabella’s dress and it is just beautiful. She looks so grown up in it.

Isabella also started riding horses at Cedar Creek Farm. She just loves it. Ever since she rode a pony last summer she has been obsessed with horses. She’s not scared to get on her and doesn’t want to leave when it’s over. Boone county family resources helps pay for it as it is part of her speech therapy.

My Dad turned 50 on March 15th and we surprised him with a party of Boone Tavern. My aunt Sharla turned 40 so she joined us with some of her friends as well. Isabella thought the party was for her and was wound up.

March 18 Isabella had her surgery to remove her feeding tube (yeah) and the underneath of her tongue clipped. Hopefully this will help in her speech. She recovered very quickly from it. We had to stay one night in the hospital, but by the next day she was fine.

But we are staying busy these days. Between speech therapy two days a week and between tumble bees and horseback riding I feel like I am running around in circles sometimes. I hope to find a daycare to watch her couple of days a week. The older she gets the harder it is to work from home.

Makhai turned two December 11th. Here he is blowing out is Elmo cake candles

Isabella goofing off in a tunnel at one of the “Parents as teachers” events.

Grandpa Randy holding Isabella with Grandma Mary Ann Christmas Day

Isabella and her great grandma (aka “Ma”)

Another great family photo Ha! From left, Isabella, Blake, Makhai, and barely Blane

Christmas Eve - From left Amanda, Grandpa Rod (aka “Awe”), Isabella and Nana

Isabella with Santa (she gave Santa hugs and kisses)

Isabella and Nana Christmas day (wonder what’s so funny)

Emily, Isabella and Brendon (Isabella will be mini bride in their wedding)

Well sorry these pictures are so old. I hope to get a little better this year (yeah right lol)

Isabella and her cousins (from left to right: Skyler, Izzy, Blake, Makhai and Blane) Its really hard to get a good picture of all five of them. I think there was twenty or so pictures on my camera and Isabella is not smiling on any of them. Oh well kids will be kids!

Isabella painting outside. She loves her finger paints. However, she would rather paint herself then on paper. Its a good thing they are washable!

Isabella getting ready to sit down at her picnic table and read her magazine. This kid loves her magaines!

This summer, Isabella entered, but did not win a baby contest at the Hillbilly Festival in Laurie. The theme was hawaiian. I made the grass skirt and had coconuts airbrushed on an onesie. Luckily we had some leis from Tammy’s reception. She had fun…altough she was scared of the clown. She was standing and then he starting talking to her and when he put the mic to her she jumped in my arms. She’s never been afraid of anyone before, but she did not like that clown. Oh well, no clowns at her birthday parties!

We resently took a trip to Tennessee to attend the wedding of a family friend, Katie Gifford and her new husband Matt. We spent an extra day there and went to see Katie’s Dad, Mark. He lives on a small farm with lots of animals and Isabella had a blast! This is a picture of Janice, (Mark’s girlfriend) Curly Joe (the horse) and Isabella. Isabella has became very interested in horses resently. It all started when she rode a pony at the Hillbilly festival. Then she got to ride a pony at the Apple Festival in Versailles, MO. Now she can spot a horse a mile away. But this is a picture of Isabella getting ready to pet Curly Joe. She would have done anything to ride the horse!

This is one of Janice’s ducks. She has all kinds of birds that she raises. She didn’t know what to think about holding the duck. She wasn’t scared and I was really proud of her for being so gentle with him.

Isabella was a Bee for Holloween. We went trick or treating around our neighborhood. She was so proud of her bag of candy. When they would put the candy in her bag, she had to go dig it out to see what she got. She ate the whole bag the next day.

Here Isabella is riding the Horse at Grammy Dalene’s house.

Isabella riding the pony at the Hillbilly festival with her grammy leading the way.

There are many more still on my camera, but wanted to share these with everyone.

This picture was taken at my cousin, Tammy’s wedding reception in july. My grandma bought this dress for Isabella and she wore it to Tammy and Byron’s wedding that we attented in Florida. I love the dress so much, I wanted her to be able to wear it more then once. (notice the stickers on her leg LOL)

Isabella loves to look at magazines. She flips through it page by page wanting to know what everything is. If she finds a picture of a pretty women she points to it and says “lady’ It’s kind of cute. We fight over the magazines because she thinks she should get them first, but I think I should get them first. She usually wins

These were taken at Bonkers. We went there will cousins Blake and Blane and aunt Candy. This was the first time for Isabella and she really loved it. Isabella had never been there before and she really loved it. Blake and Blane dragged her around everywhere in there. They had fun!

Jimmie and Isabella went to the park for a walk together and Daddy took some good pictures during their outing. I like how she bends over and sticks her butt out..lol!

Here is Isabella with her Grandpa during our weekend trip to the Lake of the Ozarks this summer. I’m not sure if she is crying or laughing, but she sure does have a goofy expression on her face. She calls him “aaaww” Any book of hers that has a man with a mustache, she brings it to me and points to the man and says “aaawww” It so funny. I keep trying to get her to at least say, “pa”, but all that comes out is the ‘aw” Who knows maybe she will call him that for the rest of her life..lol!

Isabella is such and big help around the house. Here she is rearranging my food cabinet. I don’t recall it needing rearranging, but Isabella thought it did. She won’t leave my kitchen cabinets and drawers alone. I will be glad when she gets over this stage…hopefully soon!

Last but not least, here Isabella is with her necklaces and sash, looking goofy as ever. She loves her jewlry and went she puts on her necklaces and braclets, she puts them ALL on at once!

Florida Vacation Photos

A few days ago, Isabella learned how to climb the ladder on her jungle gym outside. Today she went up the ladder and down the slide all by herself. She has always been so cautious, she either wanted to hold our hand or catch her at the bottom of the slide. She did it over and over again this morning. My baby is growing up

Well its been a long day and I’m getting ready to go to bed. I hope that I get a goods night sleep. I have not been sleeping well at night. I wake up and all I feel is sadness. I’m having a really hard time with everything that has been going on. A comment was made to my grandma about maybe she didn’t do all that she could do to make sure that her ex-husband got to see their kids after the divorce. This bothers me because I don’t think the custodial parent should have to seek out the non-custodial parent to arrange visitations. Maybe I’m wrong on this, but if I didn’t have custody of my child I would not stop until I got my visitations what were legally awarded to me.

To a good night’s sleep!
Mel

I always thought a had a pretty normal family, but I’ve learned in the past couple of days that I don’t. I feel very sad that everyone just can’t get along. Everyone has faults and everyone has feelings. I have always been a true believer in expressing your feelings. Sometimes I choose not to express my feelings for fear of hurting someone elses feelings. Someone I love very dearly is hurting and I don’t know how to fix it. I have done a lot of reading lately regarding family fueds and here is some of what I have learned. Everyone I have loved has hurt me in some way or another (some still are) but I have forgiven them and I think that is the most important thing you can ever do for yourself. I feel that with everything going on its to the point of not only affecting the people that are involved but everyone in the family. This is causing unnecessary stress on everyone and I think my Grandma deserves the peace of knowing that her family is unified and intact. I also believe that everything has three sides; your side, their side and the truth. I am trying to step in everyone shoes and see their side of the story. I wish everyone would examine their role in this mess. Everyone should ask themself, if grandma died suddenly, what would be left unsaid? I have made a decision for myself and my own family that we will not be attending family functions until this is all resolved and all people involved are on the road to healing.

Mel

Hey everyone…hope everyone is enjoying the nice summer weather we have been having. Just wanted to write a little update since it has been awhile. We have been back from Florida a couple of weeks and although we enjoyed it we are glad to get back in the swing of things at home. Isabella has to have a routine or she doesn’t function well. The main reason we went to Tampa, Fl was for my cousin, Tammy’s wedding. It was a very beautiful wedding with a fancy reception. I got to catch up with another cousin of mine, Lisa. So we all had a nice time. We also visited Busch Gardens (which i just loved), The Aquarium (which Isabella enjoyed the most) and the Salvador Dali Museum (Jimmie’s favorite painter). We spent a lot of time enjoying the pool at our resort. Isabella loved swimming. We put arm rings on her and she moves around the pool on her own. It’s such a change from last year when she held on to us for dear life. We found the best place to eat Chinese food - it’s called P.F. Changs, but of course we don’t have one here in Columbia. Isabella was not a big fan of the beach, she did not like how she sank in the sand. We thought we weren’t going to get good weather when we arrived, since tropical storm Barry hit Friday night. Thankfully all the nasty weather passed by Saturday. We were so proud of how well Isabella did on her first plane ride and of course she ate up all the attention she got. She now waves and says “hi” to just about everyone she sees now.

In other news, her pallet surgery has been schedule for July 10th. The said they will cut around the gum line and stretch the skin over the hole. She will have to give up her ninny (pacifier) and be in arm restraints for two weeks. She also will have to give up her sippy cup and drink out of a regular cup because she is not allowed to do any sucking. I am more nervous this time then I have ever been. She is older now and more aware of what is going on. But hopefully this will be her last surgery and then soon we can stop using the feeding tube and all of this will be a distant memory.

As far as what’s been going on in Isabella’s world, she is walking. She started to walk about 15 months. Now she is moving everywhere and fast! She is climbing up on furniture some. She knows how to climb down from the couch or bed. Since she knows how to climb stairs we are trying to work on climbing back down, but she hasn’t gotten the concept yet. We are working on getting comfortable with the potty - she tells me right after she has gone in her diaper. Her vocabulary is increasing, however since she can’t say in hard consonants most of her words are hard to distinguish. For instance “ball” sounds like “mall”.

Jimmie’s Dad, Randy, built a covered patio for us on the back porch. It’s nice to sit out there in the evening. Isabella loves it outside. We have a little play set and a pool that enjoys playing it. She also likes to shoot basketballs in her basketball goal.

Here are some pictures for you to see. I will post more as I go through them on the computer. I haven’t done it in a while because they were spread out over several computers and I needed Jimmie to put them all on one computer so I could edit them.

Isabella (14 months) pushing her walker toy. Of course now she carries it around!

This was so funny…I had to grab the camera before helping her out of her toy box.

Izzy’s first crash and burn face. She opened up her tray on her high chair and took a nose dive to the floor. She cried pretty hard and wanted Daddy for this one. Of course after that we bought a new chair that had straps and a better tray clasp.

Blake and Izzy on a bike…taken in March for Blake and Blane Birthday party down at the lake.

It’s been a while seen we’ve gotten a picture of all the cousins together. Of course Makhai has his eyes closed and Izzy’s in her own little world…but what the heck…Blake and Blane are having fun!

Blane turned four on March 5th. This was taken at his birthday party at T.K. Brothers. Here he is getting ready to blow out his candles…make a good wish Blane!

There’s my smiling girl

Isabella and Makhai playing outside on Grandma Dalene’s porch

Don’t they look cute together?

Isabella and her best friend, Neller

Picture of our new patio!

picture of our new patio finished

Izzy helping me in the garden…I’m actually stealing some of my neighbors flowers. lol (luckily William gave me permission)

Izzy running in the grass

Ooops…down you go!

Brush yourself off and get back up…she’s my tough little girl!

click here for Florida vacation pictures

Hope you have enjoyed seeing some new pictures…I know it had been awhile and hopefully I will not get that far behind again. Please pray that everything goes okay with her surgury July 10. She does weight 22 pounds now (still only in the 10th percentile…but we’ll take it!) We are going to the lake of the ozarks this weekend to stay in a house that my parents rented. I hope we have fun and hope that everyone has a fun and safe Forth of July. Take Care…Mel

Well I’m getting behind on our blog and really behind on pictures. I’ve had cabin fever for a while now but it’s getting better since we are able to go outside some and take walks. We have put up a slide/jungle gym setup that we bought at a garage sale last fall. Isabella really enjoys it and even stands at the back door and points to it.

She does weight 20 lbs now and we even got to turn her car seat around. She was scared at first, but now she’s okay with it. She is even talking a few steps on her own now. I am hoping that she walks before Rene leaves for Alaksa on April 20. She misses her kids and grandkids so has decided to go back home. I was really upset for some time but I have accepted it. We will probably take care of Neller while William is at the base through out the week. At least Isabella will get to be with her best friend.

For the most part we haven’t been up to much. I have been going to physical therapy for my legs retaining water and it seems to have helped. Apparently, my pelvis is out of alignment. I don’t get how to human body works sometimes. We only have to feed Isabella two times via g-tube and hopefully in two months we can quit altogether. I can’t wait.

Well here are some pictures for her 1st birthday party!!

A princess for the day - she had just woke up!

“Is this whole cupcake for ME?”

Kissing cousins! Blake and Isabella

Lovin on my great-grandma!

Isabella doing her “bear crawl”

She has not yet starting to walk, but she is starting to stand on her own. She’s very cautious so I thinks that keeps her from walking on her own.