Family fun with the Deckers

Well after a fun Memorial Day weekend I thought I would share some fun stuff we did. On Friday Nate and Danielle had us all over to cook out. It was great to get to see little Maverick! I even got the privilege of getting to bounce, and sway with him for a while until he fell asleep. Love that newborn baby snuggles....and as we all have these little ones it is important to try to get my hands on my nephews and niece when I get a second and my own busy hands are free( because those free handed moments are far and few between;) Nate built an awesome little mini hay rack for the back and the kiddos LOVED riding on it!! (I even heard Luke talking about it on his monitor as he was falling asleep that night) 

Then On Saturday my hubby had to work(thankful for the overtime but we sure missed him). The boys and I had a day like any weekday. We played outside and I did a few things around the house and then we walked up to the bank and the farmers market!! Love our small town market. Then we went to get groceries and to Paul's! We got Cohen's birthday present (a ken worth semi,a John Deere combine, a truck for his sandbox and a yellow train that looks like a Union Pacific train...courtesy of Uncle Matt of course;)

Sunday was a great morning at church followed by my sis and Lyric and I going to visit Grandma Landheer in the hospital. She fell and broke her hip. She is so tough and looked really good for just having hip surgery...and I think little Lyric was the perfect medicine she needed! Then we went out to Donna and Randy's house and cooked out....the boysABSOLUTELY love it out there! Horses,big open fields to run in, barns to play in, pine trees to run through etc... We are so thankful for a fun farm for them(and more importantly for great grandparents!)

Monday-Memorial Day! We went to the parade in our town...it lasts 10 minutes but has a lot of meaning packed into those 10 minutes!! They boys couldn't wait to watch the fire tricks. 

Here we are on our way...

And mommy and Lyric

And my parents went too. We walked by their house on the way and they joined us. Here is their dog Riley's first blog appearance! Lol;-) she is a wonderful 11 years young 

Here is the boys waiting(a patient as they know how...for it to begin) 

It was a great weekend! So thankful that Matt was off work Monday but even more thankful for the past soldier and their sacrifice!! Hope you all had a great weekend too!!

Update in Deckerville

Look at this amazing little face!!!! I thought I'd start this post off with a big smile from good ole' Lukie boy!! As most of you know I originally started this blog when we had him and found out he was going to undergo a major cranial plastic surgery. It was a great place to keep my thoughts and to keep everyone updated as well! Since all of that it has been some what of a spriatic blog...posting here and there with updates over the past 2 BUSY (blessed) years! I would like to post more (I know I know I always say that;) and really think I am going to work hard to keep up at it this summer! I LOVE that I can go back and re-read every detail of what we went through (revisiting that sounds awful right now) and I know someday I will be glad I have all of this to show Luke and our family! So I am going to press forward blogging and try to blog much more on us as a family and not just pertain it to Luke! (Sorry buddy...but it's time to share the blog-light with the other two;) However I will go ahead and give Luke most of this post as we are approaching our 2 year post surgery date! I spoke with the University  of Chicago Medicine yesterday and they scheduled his 2 year check up for June 10th. I have to admit just seeing that name on my phone makes me weak in the knees (ick!) but I am soooo looking forward to this post surgery check up since there will be NO ct scans, blood work, IV's, anesthetic etc... Like last year! They literally will be measuring his head and doing a visual analysis and THAT'S IT FOLKS!!! Best appointment ever needed for him there and even though it sounds like we will only get about 15 mins with his plastic surgeon and we just had his head measured by his regular pediatrician when he was 2(and he was in the 50th percentile Thank you Lord) and it's going to be a 6 hour round trip give or take with traffic...it is still going to be sooo great to have the peace of mind (or should I say peace of flesh?!? Because my heart and soul are so euphoric about Luke. God has granted me an Unstopable peace that I will forever hold onto that he will always remain perfect and healthy and whole just as he is today) anyways it will be a good peace of mind to hear that everything is okay with his head and how it has grown size wise and how his skull has shaped this past year! Luke has been one tough, brave, and courageous little boy his whole life and it continues to carry on each day. We are so grateful for him and love his strong willed personality! He is harder to reason with that what we were use to from Lane but we see such an awesome persistence in Luke and know he will be an amazing leader in life!!! Please join us in praying for an amazing report in June for Luke! God has been so good through EVERYTHING!! I am in such a better place in my life now that I can look back at what He has brought me through to strengthen me for anything I may have to go through in the future. (Take that devil...you tried but God still used it all for my good! Ha!)

      As for the rest of us...we are great! Lane will be going to preschool in the fall! We visited the Christian preschool down the street and loved it! (Luke loved it too!;) I can't believe my little mister is 4 and going to preschool in a few months! This mommy is having some major growing pains!! 

And as for Lyric he is sooo adorable,chunky, and amazing! He just turned 3 months old...he sleeps awesome(in our room still...but we are getting ready to transition the big boys to sharing a room here soon so Lyric can at least nap in the nursery....they all sleep soo soo good now....do we have to do this?! Lol! I'm sure it may take some adjusting but it will work out:) oh and Lyric takes a binky(finally!! After buying NINE different brands) and the one he takes is an old one I found in my husbands nightstand that we must have tried when Lane was little and guess what ITS DISCONTINUED!! Not only is it not sold in stores it's not made any more!! They are going on eBay for 30bucks for two! GAHHHH!!! But hey when you're exclusively breastfeeding and have two other toddlers and a baby that thinks "mommy" is a pacifier you will pay just about anything!(or at least I would;) 

Matt....is...30!!! (Finally now he can stop picking on me about being 30 for the past 3 months!) and I must say he is better looking today than he has ever been!!;)

AND we celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary this month!!! He is the best decision I have ever made!!

So thankful for my awesome husband and this amazing life he has provided for me and our boys. Looking forward to the future and forever with him!!! And of course I give God ALL the glory from whom all blessings flow!!! Amen!!!!!

(Hope to be back soon...I did just make some amazing Carmel bars...I may have to blog about that so the boys can look back remember how I baked for them! Lol;)

Lyric Matthew

It's time to give credit where credit is due.....Lyric Matthew here is your debut to deckerville.... We are SO in love with you!!!! Born Febuary 18, 2014...7lbs 15 oz and 20 1/2 inches long!! You are incredibly perfect!!!!

You have ALOT of commotion to live with and are adapting great!! Your brother Lane  loves you sooooo much and is a great helper! He asks to hold you all the time and is so sweet when you cry. 

Your big brother Luke loves you too but doesn't show it quite yet....since he just turned two he is more concerned with climbing getting in the fridge and coloring on things he shouldn't than spending time gah gah over you...BUT he did kiss you right away when he met you and he is very sweet to you when he does stop running to notice you!!;)

You have THEE best daddy who adores you and loves to hold you!! He loves his night time in the chair once the other two are in bed to just hold you and love you while you sleep! Your daddy works SO hard to provide for this family and still gives us his all every night!!! 

And as for me....I am so in awe of you. Your personality is already amazing at one week old and you are soooooo beautiful. You love to sleep with me and so far will nap in your swing too! You are breast fed and are eating great and I love bonding with you! I love our time of day when we catch an afternoon catnap and I can just stare at you!!! 

We thank God for blessing is with you and are soooooo grateful you are who you are! Welcome to our family! You make it even more perfect! We love you!

Luke is TWO!!!!

We can not believe our precious little Luke is 2 years old TOMORROW!!!! Love our little valentines day baby!!! Since my last post (wow....a long long time ago I wanted to upload a few pics so you could all see how AMAZING his head looks!!) He has been so healthy, no head problems, and just one or toe colds! He is such a smart boy! Talking up a storm now....knows all his colors (trips up on red now and again and his favorite color of anything seems to be orange and sometimes yellow!!) He loves his abcs and knows them well and is doing awesome at shapes! We are so Proud of him!! 

Here is a picture of him at Christmas with his daddy....ya ya I know you can't see his head lol! But I just love this picture of these two!!:) 

Here he is with me at Christmas....doesn't his head look amazing! Can't hardly see the scar and the shape is perfect(unless you feel it but hey who has a perfect head with out a bump or dip here and there....we are all made differently! Even our skulls!!;)

 



Here is another up close one!!!

And this one below shows the top well! Can't even see that scar even through his white blonde hair!

And here is in further back! Look as his precious little donut face:) Him and his brother and DEFINATLY different in looks but so similar in lots of ways too!!!:) 

Another good top of his head shot below(not sure he will have long hair like his brother!?! Guess it would depend how it would lay through the scar line:) 

And one more close one of his head shape!!

Here is one very up closes from yesterday that Daddy sent me right when he woke up!!;) 

Our sweet little man is so precious and wonderful and we are STILL in awe of God's amazing grace that he showed us through it all !! We talk about it often and NEVER take it for granted that is for sure!!!! I can not promise I will blog more often but I would love too....but since Luke's baby brother is due today and this house is about to have a 3 year old 2 year old and newborn....I am not sure I will get the time....but hey ya never know...those middle of the night nursing sessions just might give me a little more time on my hands!!:-) 

Whoot whoot GOD IS CONSTANT!!!!

Luke's appointment went great today!!! We are so blessed and thankful to hear that LUKE is PERFECT!! It was a great ct scan! We actually got to see the pictures of his scan(and yes daddy got squeamish he admitted As soon as we walked out...he is such a trooper! ) the pictures were a lil crazy I have to admit! It was his teeth his expression face head etc! And you could see where the plates were where the work had been done...where there were small gaps from things dissolving! It was intense but the good thing is Dr. Reid was very pleased with it! He said there is no need for concern and that his head is in the 48th percentile and the shape is great and his scar healed nicely& with his hair you'll never even see the lil imperfections!!! We are so blessed!!! We don't go back until June 2014!!! We are so excited for an awesome summer that we can be completely present in! Daddy is on a "qi qi boy high" as he said! just so happy!!! We give GOD all the glory for the entire road we have walked on!!! He has been above and before it all and the amazing thing is....HE ALWAYS IS!!!!! He is faithful and CONSTANT!!!! And He loves us ALL the same!!!! THANK YOU all for standing firm with us in this crazy amazing journey! What a 15 months it has been an I am so grateful for each and everyone of you that we couldn't have made it through without you!!!!!

Update on Luke

MY HOPE IS BUILT ON NOTHING LESS....THAN JESUS BLOOD AND RIGHTEOUSNESS....I DARE NOT  TRUST THE SWEETEST FRAME, BUT WHOLLY TRUST IN JESUS NAME....


Well I am back on the blog....as I have intended to keep updating for many reasons I just have not stayed committed in all the busynes of our healthy and fun little boys! However there is some reasons I am back! One...to update you all about how Luke is doing currently and what we have been going through and two to keep you updated in the future not just on him but on all of us and I really do enjoy writting! So I am back on the blog and hope I can stay a while! So first things firsts....the past 3-5 months have been wonderful. We had a great check up for Luke in December...his plastic surgeon said his head was perfect and in the 52 percentile(not too big and not too little) and despite a few little bumps from the way his head molded(which have smoothed out tremendously and aren't even noticable any more) that he looked wonderful! He told us he would see us in June for his routine 1 year post surgery ct scan and review that he does with every paitent and scheduled ours for June 24th. Well last Saturday Luke woke up (after suffering from a little bug all week) from his afternoon nap and was walking a little funny. I thought at first it seemed as though it was asleep or maybe he twisted his lil ankle because he was walking with a limp kind of and rolling his foot out. Well Sunday he was definatly doing it noticiably at church w/ a little stiff leg but his foot seemed better. I was hoping Monday it would be gone but it wasn't. Of course I didn't really think that his leg could have anything to do with his head however of course since it being so relevant and not even quite a year ago we went through this surgery etc....I just still kind of related it for some reason. Well Monday we had his 15 month well baby check up so I figured I'd mention it to his pediatrician...he did not see any concern for Luke's leg he thought it was just a phase in his walking as he tried to go fast(I'm telling you...to us who watch him walk all the time it did not look right and people that see him often agreed) so I felt happy to hear that of course and Luke was in no pain and showed to reaction to his new found stiff little gimp he was carrying but still it just didn't seem right. Well after everything checked out perfect on his little body and he passed wonderfully in his development packet our pediatrician was charting everything in his tablet and said he did want to show me his head chart...he felt as though his head was not progressing in size up the scale as it should. He said that it should be going up at a diagonal more and Luke's did until about 9/10 months and then seemed to be staying the same only going up slightly. He has averaged about a 1/4 of an inch growth per visit. So to put it into my own perspective...Lane's head was the same size as Luke's is right now when he was 9 months(now I know Lane has a bigger head like his Momma and Luke may just have a smaller head like his Daddy but that still was unsettling) Anyways his pediatrician printed out his chart and asked me to show his surgeon in Chicago and even though he did not think the walking issue was related he did admit he wasn't by any means skilled in Luke's past situation so he didn't want to rule anythying out. So after crying in his office hearing that Luke's head was "below average" and feeling a little stressed that my perfect little man who's been walking for 5 months is now limping and we don't know why...I had a hard cry all the way home, I called Chicago and they said they'd inform his surgeon and get back to me...I cried on the phone, everytime I talked about it, to my hubby(a little more than just a cry), and dealt with a lot of emotion I didn't even realize I had. I feel as though Matt and I have a master's degree in trusting God! We've had a lot more experience than some(however I still am so beyond blessed that I have had much less) but you know what I mean. So when this arised it wasn't by any means a "trust issue"...I completly trusted him from the get go with my whole being it was more of a "shock" reaction. Like "wait a minute...he is perfect...looks great, head great, attitude great, developing great" and.....THERE'S AN ISSUE??? What issue??? Our child is perfect...it was a hard road...but we made it to perfection and now....whatt did you just say????? That is where my crying came from. Well after all that Luke woke up REMARKABLY better with his walking that afternoon (Duh?!...God you are so good!!) and by Tuesday morning he was completly normal! PTL! (part of my anxious heart was his walking, his dr. not knowing why, but not ruling anything out due to his past condition etc... ) In the mean time I spoke to his nurse in Chicago and she did email Dr. Reid and he did want to see Luke earlier than June. I emailed him the picture of his head size chart and by yesterday afternoon they said we could come the next day(today ) for a ct scan. I was relieved because all I wanted was to know how his head was and if his brain did indeed have enough room inside his head(which we assume it does because he shows no sign of cranial pressure...however lets say if his head is 3 inches to small and his brain is up to normal size that could create a problem) So like I said I was relieved however I also felt a little urgency in my heart like "why so soon" however I know God has the ultimate plan, He goes before us in every situation so I just took my eyes right off that and back to him. Well we left at 6 am today and went to his ct scan. We got there which normally took us 3-3 1/2 hours right down to the last 5 minutes (traffic traffic TRAFFIC!!) but we ended up waiting a little anyways and Luke was sleeping so that was ok. After lots and lots of trying with the nurses, and child life specialists...we just couldn't get him to lay back and do it still enough so we ended up having to have him sedated...(this post is getting very lengthy so I'll spare you every detail of him pulling my hair, gripping me like never before, shuttering, having oxygen up his nose etc...it was awful and I cried right along with him) but they sedated him fairly quickly and he was literally asleep less than 10 minutes and with in 10 minutes of being awake he was high fiving us and telling the nurses how old he was :) Such a little champ that one! Anyways so after another long 4 hour ride home we made it and he took a good long nap...so good we couldnt even get him to wake up barely he wanted the rest...and who can blame him after the day he had. Well I got my ipad out to email Dr. Reid asking him if we could by chance get a phone call or an email to update us on how his ct scan was and if his little brain had plenty of room in there etc...before out appt. this coming tuesday(dr. reid is still going to see him regardless of what the scan said b/c like I said it's just protocall one year post surgery) and when I got into my email I had a response from him I had not seen yet in regards to his head chart. It said that he was glad we could get in early and that he'd see us soon and to not worry that the important thing is that Luke is doing well!! WHEW what a relief!! Obviously the final factor is just to know that everything looks great inside, all plates, screws, pins are dissolved that even inspite of his smaller head that his brain has plenty of room and that he is ok in there but that still helped me feel relief in regards to his head chart. We feel if he was worried by that picture(like our pediatrican was and like we were from his opinion) than he wouldn't have said "do not worry the important thing is Luke is doing well" which is so true! He is PERFECT on the outside...so I am trying to remind myself perfect outside, perfect inside. And He is made in CHRIST'S image!! Perfect, healthy and whole AMEN!!! So that is where we are at now....the scan is done...we go back Tuesday the 28th for a full report and we are hoping to hear from Dr. Reid via email or phone how the scan looked before then. We are sorry for those who did not hear about this prior...what a whirlwind...walking different, well baby check up, head size concern, calling chicago, next day ct scan etc! There was a lot of factors why I didnt' get an email out sooner and I'm sorry if anyone heard 2nd or 3rd party. PLEASE pray for Luke and thank God for his goodness!! We are believing he is going to bring us through like the last time HE did!!
"ALL OUR HOPE IS IN YOU, ALL THE GLORY TO YOU GOD..THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD...JESUS MESSIAH NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES BLESSED REDEEMER EMMANUEL!!"

Ok great(kinda....)

Soo....there is a successful picture but It only goes at the very bottom and I'm still unsure how to give it a little caption....but it's a start.....will be posting an update (with most likely not captionized pics:) hee hee!!!