We have added to our family!

I know that some of you are waiting for pictures of our adults only trip to Disney and they will be coming...but the newest member of our family takes precedence. We are happy to announce the arrival of Madeline Liberty Hogan....we call her Maddy! She was born on February 23, 2009 so she is a little over 8 weeks old and weighs almost three pounds.. She was born in Beaver City, Nebraska and flew to us on an airplane yesterday. The poor little things left her house before midnight Thursday night and we picked her up a little after 1pm on Friday. We are so happy to have her here. The excitement level is very high and she is being loved enough for four puppies!

A busy Easter

We woke up Easter morning to the sound of Jamahl reading the note from the Eater Bunny to his sisters. I jumped out of bed to grab the camcorder, and I don't think that I sat down for the rest of the day. First the kids looked for their eggs inside. Jamahl had camouflage ones, Mckenzy had Hello Kitty ones, Keyan had Elmo eggs, Sidney hunted Spiderman eggs, and Abagayle looked for princess ones. They have been looking forward to the egg hunt since last year. After all the eggs had been found we had a big breakfast with chocolate bunnies for dessert! You gotta love the Easter candy!

Once breakfast was cleaned up and everyone was dressed, we headed outside for another egg hunt. This time it was a free for all and they were squealing with excitement when they would spot an egg. It was so much fun. Once all of the eggs had been found, we led them to the barn where their new bikes were waiting. No, we do not usually get this extravagant with Easter but the bikes were on sale this week, so we thought we might as well get the expense of it all over with! The kids were thrilled with the bikes. Jamahl was immediately ready to hop on and try to learn how to ride without training wheels. The girls were a little disgusted that their bikes were not put together. The day was the nicest that we have had since St. Patrick's day so the adults took turns helping Jamahl and Paul got busy building the other bikes. It was so cute to watch the girls anxiously "helping" Daddy get their bike together. By the end of the afternoon, Abby was pretty confident, McKenzy was coming right along with a little help getting started and turning, and Sidney was still figuring out how to peddle. Jamahl is working on his balance and Keyan was so happy for everyone she could hardly stand it....don't forget she got her ambike a couple months ago.
Uncle Jeremy and Auntie Roo arrived in time for dinner and than it was back outside to show them the bikes. We ended the day with ice cream at Captain Sundaes. It was a fantastic family day. When Paul and I finally fell into our beds that night, he said, "That was a fun day. It was great to watch the kids have so much fun, but I could not keep up to this pace all the time!" Who are you kidding honey.....we live this pace constantly!!! We hope that you had a great Easter!

Coco Key-Chicago

Spring break was so great!!!! It was so nice to be without a schedule and focus on doing fun things. We limited Keyan's therapy sessions and tried to have a week off from our calendar. My Mom took Jamahl to Chicago for two nights to visit the Lego Discovery center and do some "boy" things. The hotel that they stayed in had an huge indoor water park so Paul and I packed the girls up for a day trip to enjoy the water fun. We had a blast spending the day together as a family and away from the responsibilities of home. We rented our own personal cabana so we had a place to relax, warm up, and eat without fighting the crowds. It was just what we needed. We debated about taking Keyan but decided to take a leap of faith and let her have the experience too. It is always a struggle knowing what to do but I totally know that we did the right thing. All she talks about is how much fun she had at the water park. It is so much fun to see the kids' eyes light up when they are talking about the slides and splashing, and the big bucket of water dumping all over Grammie!!! We did not have time to take too many photos but I hope you can see the fun in their faces.

A family outing

So this post is a little out of order, but the weekend before Keyan went back to the hospital, we took the kids to see "Disney on Ice". We had such a good time. As you can see, the kids dressed in their Disney finest and were very excited. Although, when I first told the girls that I had bought tickets and we were going, Sidney and McKenzy both started crying. When I asked them why they were upset, McKenzy said, "but I don't like ice skating!" and Sidney very seriously said, "I am no good at ice skating." So, after I quickly explained that we would just be watching a show, everyone was ready to go! We made it to Grand Rapids, thru the parking garage, walked up the block to the arena, and made it to our seats without losing anybody!!! I was feeling very happy. Jamahl and I went and got snacks for everyone and the show began. The theme of the show was "100 years of Magic" so we saw just about all of the more popular Disney characters and the music and skating were wonderful. At one point, all of the princesses were on the ice, there was Ariel, Cinderella, Snow White, Pocahontas, and Jasmine.....but Aurora!! Aurora is Mckenzy's favorite and it did not take her long to realize that her princess was missing. Just as she was about to melt down crying, Jamahl just said matter of factly that Aurora must have been sick, maybe she had the flu! Abby told her that Aurora must have stayed in Disney World, and Sidney just shrugged her shoulders, and said that Aurora must not be able to skate! McKenzy thought about all of the wisdom of her siblings and said, "OK, maybe next time!" Thank goodness for the intuition of kids! When I was buying the tickets, I was very concerned that Keyan would not be able to see. I was unable to get seats right up front so I knew that we were just going to have to deal with what we could get. We were about 20 rows form the floor, the arena was dark, the spotlights were on the ice and all over in the seats, kids had light-up, spinning things....needless to say, it was a lot for her to take in. As the show started, I noticed that she was curled into the back of her seat, and I thought that she was crying. I picked her up to comfort her and saw that she was grinning ear to ear. She couldn't really see the characters on the ice and the rest of the atmosphere was overwhelming, so she shut her eyes, and enjoyed the show totally with her ears. She clapped her little heart out and sang along with most of the songs. Her smile never left her face. It was amazing!She knew just how to adapt n order to enjoy it the most. It made me realize that I could do all the worry in the world, but she knows how to deal with some of her limitations. It was amazing to watch her overcome her"difference" and still totally get as much as any of us out of the experience. She is such a cool little girl! Needless to say, we had a wonderful time spending time together as a family.

Home again...with another tube!

Our poor Keyan has had such a hard winter. Many of you know that she has been in and out of the hospital since the middle of December, basically spending just about half of the winter in the hospital. She was admitted last week for a severe kidney infection as well as an infection in her lungs. After spending 8 days there, it was determined that she needed a total of 14 days worth of IV antibiotics. So, in order for her to come home the doctors inserted a PICC line which is basically a long IV that is inserted in her arm and threaded thru her chest, into the opening of her heart. This fancy tube lets us give the medicine at home, so she did not have to stay inpatient the entire time. The PICC line will stay in until the end of next week and than our nurses will be able to pull it out!!! We are very excited to have her home, but there is a large concern about her getting another infection in the line. Please pray that this does not happen!!! Here she is showing off her latest "badge of courage".

Keyan was so very happy to be at home and she just keeps playing and playing. Tonight after dinner she decided to have ice cream for dessert. She loved every bit of it, although most of it made it all over her face rather than her tummy! Thanks for the prayers and please keep them coming.

The Hogan Infirmary

We have missed so much this past week....Abagayle's coming home day, the anniversary of Keyan getting her trach, the girls' actual due date, and I am sure several other things but EVERYONE has been sick! For an entire week, our living room has been sick central. The poor babes have no energy. I have never seen anything like it. They don't play at all, they just sleep and occasionally watch a movie. Keyan was in the hospital for three days and actually probably brought her home a little sooner than we should have but with the help of our great nurses, we have been able to keep her home so far. The girls have worn nothing but pajamas but an entire week! Everyone is finally rounding the bend, and we hope to catch up on Abby's day later this week. It is so hard to have sick kids!!!!

72 Valentines and counting...

Ok, Valentines Day used to be my favorite holiday...but it is no longer. As a matter of fact, I do believe it has become my least liked holiday. Why, well because I just completed filling out 72 valentines cards for the girls to take to school. They in turn brought at least 72 cards home with them also. Oh, and can I just say that I would kill for the time to make beautiful heart shaped treats for the entire class. The girls received so many cute things...I felt horrible with their store bought Wall-e, Mickey Mouse, Princesses, and Spiderman cards. As if I need more mommy guilt! Never fear though, Jamahl and I did make homemade paper airplanes for him to take to school tomorrow. For some reason last year I decided to do home made dinosaur ones with him and so he was not about to just buy the ones from the store. What was I thinking????? I guess after finishing with Jamahl's class I am up to 96! At least Jamahl could write the names on them by himself! Happy Valentine's Day! We love you all.