Chirstmas 2009

In order to make life a little simpler I made a smile box scrapbook of our Christmas day! What a wonderful, laid back day we had. With Mike, Candace, Tyler, Trevor and Jen over we had a full house. The kids loved the big pile of presents caused by the shear amount of people we had over. Not much more to say it was just a great holiday! Enjoy the pictures!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Cervical Strain: Neck Injury

Today I thought I would be uploading Christmas pictures to the blog and telling about our wonderful Christmas day. However I feel more compelled at this time to write about the events of Dec 26th instead of Dec 25th. (Don't worry I will get Christmas at a later date but it will have to wait.)

On Christmas we spent the night at Matt's grandfathers house along with most of his aunties, cousins and siblings. (His Grandfather wanted the whole family together, it was a blast). We woke up at the kids normal 7:00am, amazingly most everyone else was up also, so I made a run to Starbucks sans any kids. While there Matt phone's me that Matteo fell and needs Motrin, slight concern runs through my mind. When I get back I found my baby laying on Matt's chest not moving a muscle with ice on his neck. When I picked him up off of Daddy he screamed bloody murder until he manged to get back in the same position and again he stopped moving and just kept saying oww. All I could think about was this is my kid who the day before fell down 3 stairs and stood up looked over said oww and went on playing, this is my kid who chipped his front tooth and I have no clue how he did it because he doesn't ever show pain.

We were heading to the hospital. Matt, Karlee and I took him to Sierra Vista. He did smile once in the car when we put on his favorite song but mostly he was trying to fall asleep, which of course I was not allowing him to do, afraid of a concussion.

We got to the hospital about 8:15ish. They proceed to take is blood pressure which was through the roof and tried to keep him comfortable. Anytime we moved him he just screamed and would hide in his blanket. One of the nurses brought in a TV and VCR and put on Aladdin. That really helped him calm down but not enough that he would let anyone touch him. They did x-ray's which I couldn't be in for because of the pregnancy so it was up to Matt and Karlee to hold him down screaming while they took the films. They came back showing no broken bones so the doctor was leaning towards a really bad muscle strain, and decide it would be best to give him pain meds and see if she could exam him that way.


Pain meds it was, they shot him up and he finally calmed down enough the doctor was able to get a good look at him but he still would not turn his neck to the left. He would looked only to the right. We tried to get him to turn his neck every way we could think of but nothing, he would just reach back with his arms and try to blindly grab at what we had. So....the doctor said if it was her kid she would want a CAT scan just to be sure there was truly no fractures and whatever else the CAT scan showed. Off to the CAT scan we went. This time I did go down the hall with them, because if he didn't hold still they were going to sedate him. Thank God, he held still. They suited Matt up the heavy lead vests and had him stand right by the tube talking to him. And with the pain meds running through his little body he laid there like a champ.

Again we were lucky everything came back normal so he was diagnose with a Cervical Strain Neck Injury. They told us to keep him on Motrin for the next 24hr or longer and with a baby his age we should see improvement by tomorrow. Before we left they gave him the first does of Motrin (on top of his other pain meds) and at 12:30pm we walked out the hospital with a highly doped up 2yr. He fell asleep in the car and then woke up when we got home, still very uncomfortable and not moving his neck. At 2:00pm he feel asleep again until 6:00pm. He was still in pain but wanted to play with is trains so we propped him with pillows laid him in a direction he would see the trains and he drove them around for awhile. At 9:00 we tucked him into bed between us and he as out until 7:00am this morning minus a Motrin hit at 4:00am.

This morning he is doing much better he is actually moving around and playing but will still point to his neck every once in awhile and say owww. So everything seems on the mend yeah!! We are just going to hang low and not making any sudden movements around him.

There you have it our exciting day after Christmas. Here are a few pictures I took last night.

His hospital Tag.



Trying to play trains.

Lynn - 9 months later

Howdy family and friends,

The Hats have come off! I have enough fuzz on my head that I have decided to go hatless….hopefully I will be brave enough to bare this almost bare head at school! Poor Tracy has had to endure my constant fixation with hair, first the disappearance of it and now the announcements as each hair reappears (often she gets more information than she wants)J.

It has been nine months since the diagnosis of breast cancer – what a journey. It did not take long for me to discover others that shared my plight or had far greater challenges and I realized that I have been truly blessed with the family, friends, and medical resources to overcome what was once a devastating disease. The final leg of this journey has been the easiest to manage. I spend about 15 minutes each morning lying on a table having a radiation treatment. At first I spent the time counting the seconds the machine “zapped” each of five tattooed locations. But I soon learned this was the perfect time for prayer/meditation. I imagine I will miss those few minutes of silence come January and I am back in the classroom. The treatments have left me with quite a tan on one side of my body, (the other side is pasty white – ugh)! The area around my clavicle is now peeling, so it isn’t very appealing! Four more treatments left – Christmas eve will me my last treatment – what a great Christmas gift! 2010 will mark the beginning of my journey back to a “normal” life. There will still be tons of doctor’s appointments, tests, treatments, and one more surgery in the spring to remove the port but all of that will occur around my normal work schedule. I have been told to expect it to take a year for my body, energy, and brain to really feel “normal” again. All the stories about “chemo brain” are true – I have been quite a space cadet (although some say they haven’t seen any difference – oops)! Thank you for being there for me, words can’t express how wonderful it is to get a simple card or email on those days when you know you have to go in for another treatment and you would rather stay home tucked under the covers. I intend to “pay it forward” as I discover ways to help others and hope I can “be there” to help you when you need it. In God’s Love, Lynn

20 weeks

So...I am not really one to enjoy pictures of myself when I am pregnant. The funniest thing about that is I love to be pregnant and I love my belly sticking out full of baby and I feel beautiful, honestly, I feel so beautiful when I am pregnant.....however I don't care to see pictures of myself. Yes I am weird. But with that all said lots of people have been bugging me about my belly and wanting to see a picture. 20wks seemed like a good milestone to let my weirdness go and snap a picture for the blog (and I guess the little guy too, for when he is bigger!)


It is hard to believe we are half way through. I love that as am typing this I can feel little man kicking around (he knows I am typing about him). This last week I started noticing my belly when I try to bend or move in certain positions but I kind of love it because I really know he is there.

Serafina loves the baby and my belly she has to hug and kiss it ALL THE TIME, no matter where we are. Then she tells him "I love you baby", as she is hugging/rubbing my tummy. It really is the cutest thing (except when you are in the grocery store line with Sam talking a mile a minute, Matteo grabbing candy off the shelf or screaming and the checker would just like me to hit OK on the pad!) Sam is just excited it's another boy and Matteo is mad my lap size is changing, he tends to pick Nana's lap over mine!

That wraps it for now. Hope you all enjoyed the picture..might be the last one until I am 40wk! HAHA

Under Construction

With every new child comes a little rearranging of the house. Depending on what number baby you are having or space we all have decisions to make. Should so and so share a room? Should we convert the office to a bedroom? How soon should we make these changes, you know the baby will sleep in our room for the first 4 months or more?

Well what to we decide to do in the middle of the busiest time of year?

Looking into Serafina's room


Looking up into the lofts from inside Serafina's room and the new safe stairs!

Remodel. Yes that is right. For those of you who have toured our house you are quite aware of our unsafe steps in Serafina's room that lead to the kids play area's (two lofts, one above the boy's room the other above Serafina's room.) Well they are now gone and new safe stairs are being built.

But that is not all.

Since finding out that we are having another boy that would mean 3 boys in one room ages 7yr, 2yr and 0yr. That didn't seem right to Sam. Poor guy he has enough trouble trying to get a goodnight sleep with the 2yr old then we throw a baby in as well. It seemed like he need his own space. Sooo...when the new stairs are done we are going to convert the loft area over the boys room into a bedroom for Sam. He is so excited to be getting his own space.

Our builder is fantastic and he is pushing to get the stairs in as fast as he can. Knowing perfectly well how it is impacting us during construction. For one Serafina's room is unusable, she is currently sleeping in our sewing room on a toddler bed. Her's and Sam's clothes are strewn about in what ever closet and drawer we can fit them in. Which of course is just an adventure to them and they are totally loving it.

However the one part that truelly has impact us this weekend is that our playroom is totally unassesable. And did I mention it rained a good portion of the week and weekend?! Oh yeah, we have been doing major arts and crafts and legos because those are the things we can find. (Yes I was not thinking before they started constrution so I didnt pull any toys down! Go me) Noni and Nono came and took them for an adventure in the rain stomping in puddles. They all had a blast and we got a nice dinner out just adults! It was like heaven. Noni took cute pictures, I will have to post them after I get them from her. All in all it has been going great. I was sorry I didnt get before pictures or progress pictures during the week. I hope to be more on it this week, only time will tell.

Somedays...

....you just have to strap everyone in their car seats, turn on your music, and drive from Arroyo Grande to Nipomo in order to get a Starbucks at a drive through.

The Purpose of Christmas

I would love to recommend a book to everyone this Christmas: The Purpose of Christmas, by Rick Warren. It is a short read. I am currently reading it with a group of friends as a bible study for Christmas time and am loving it. The book is a great reminder of the true reason for Christmas and God's love for you! So if you haven't read it pick it up, if you have...celebrate with a birthday party for Jesus!

Christmas Letter

This year we decided to tryout a new way of writing the tradition "Christmas Letter", instead of including a letter with our Christmas cards I included our blog address. My thought was family and friends could come here and see more of our little family.

Then I thought, "My goodness, they probably don't want to read the whole blog." So, I decided to write a small Christmas Letter post, then add a link so our loved ones can find it easily!

So, here we are . . .

We hope this Holiday Season finds everyone in the best of spirits. We feel so happy and blessed this year; a new baby is on the way and my mom's treatments coming to an end. We are so thankful for all the good things God has blessed our family with.

Matt is now working as the COO of a new company called Azzule. Azzule is a QA/Food Safety compliance data management company, in the food industry. Matt helped to create with is boss and co-workers from PrimusLabs.com. Around June of this year Matt made the official switch over to the new company. He still spends a portion of his time working for Primuslabs.com, but spends most of his time growing Azzule. He of course loves his new position: finding it challenging and rewarding.

Sam is amidst is second grade year at The Laurette. He has a fantastic teacher and classmates. Second grade has proved to be a bit more challenging then First grade but Sam is learning how to cope. His reading has grown leaps and bounds. Starting just at grade level, he is now approaching a 4th grade reading level. However, what we are most grateful for is that our adoption of Sam was finalized in July of this year.

Serafina continues to hold true to the meaning of her name: Fiery Angel. She is a social butterfly, and loves to mother everyone she comes in contact with. But don't think she doesn't have her own opinion on this! She has spunk and will let you know it. She was so excited this year to get her ears pierced, that is her big news.

Matteo. What to you say about him. Our two-year-old. Loves trains, planes and water. Giving him any of those 3 things to play with and he will be happy for hours. He spends his days being Nana's or my shadow, helping us fold laundry, making dinner, whatever he is all for it. He is just a little love.

As for me, I am still here keeping us all running together. I have enjoyed all the time I have had with my mom this year and am going to miss her so much when she goes back to work in January. I am also so happy to be pregnant again and feel our new little guy growing. What a blessed year it has been.

We hope that you all remember the importance of the season and are able to party with your loved ones. Merry Christmas and God Bless.

The Regusci's