IT HAS BEEN 2 YEARS

I cannot believe it has been almost 2 years to the day that I written a post. A LOT has happened since then and words cannot describe the difference those two years have made not only on myself, but my whole family. Rilee has been through two cochlear implant surgeries, two years of a deaf and hard of hearing preschools, and was officially accepted into Talent Elementary for this upcoming school year. 

When we started our journey with getting these surgeries for Rilee we did not know what to expect. 

• We didn't know if she would like them, 
• we did know if she would benefit from them, and 
• we certainly didn't know how long it would take for her to talk.

 All of these questions were slowly but surely answered by Rilee herself. NEVER in my life have I seen a more determined child

 

Here is our big girl after her Preschool graduation with Larry and I

 She loves her sister and her sister loves her

Rilee's Diploma

Goofy Girl

She is so Beautiful

Swimming

She is so grown up

She has grown so much in both her studies and herself :-)

Like Rilee, Reagan is also a determined little girl in more ways then one. She is spunky, sweet, a wreckin ball, and HILARIOUS. Some of the things that come out of her mouth are surprising. We love how much she loves and misses her sister when she is gone and how much Rilee just adores her. Larry and I are so blessed with the children that we have, they are sweet, good mannered, and well behaved. Here are some of the best pics of Reagan and of the girls together.

She is just the best

So grown up

Girls in their dresses for Fathers day :-)

Black and White

From this pic on are the many faces of REAGAN

It is amazing to think that these two years have just FLOWN by. Larry and I have moved to Talent Oregon and love the town house that we are in. Larry loves his job, I am loving my job as a wife, mother, and paralegal, and the girls are just being themselves. Thriving more and more everyday. I am starting my second year of school at CCU and Larry is on his third year at SOU. We will soon be getting our degrees and starting a new life for ourselves. We are in school because we want to show not only ourselves but our girls that no matter how old you are you can achieve your dreams. 

Reagan @15 months and Rilee @ 3.5 years old

It has been a while since I wrote a blog. I noticed that when I saw the pictures of reagan @ 9 months old lol. Since those pictures were posted these kiddos have taken off in personality and in independance.

We have lived in our apartment for 6 months and just absolutely LOVE IT. Since the last blog, Reagan has turned 1 and started walking "slowly" I might add but she will get it any day now.

At least I hope, because she is getting heavy to carry lol. She has started climbing on things, walking 15 steps at a time and the falling and saying "OH" like she did it on accident haha. She also has started talking with such words like: "Hi", "OH", "BABA", "Dada", "bob bob" (Spongbob!)and really started playing with Rilee which is really cute to see :-).

The summer has gone so quickly which I am not happy about, because I LOVE THE HEAT! Rilee hit her 1 year anniversary on getting the cochlear implant and it is just amazing how much she has just blown up in the last year.

This is when she got her cochlear activated in September of 2010

mner

This is just a month ago with her saying words!! In a year she has went from saying NOTHING to almost 100+ words.









My girls have been the biggest blessing I could ask for and I am glad I am their baba.

Our Family in 2011

Hello everyone, I have a lot to update since I last wrote the last blog. Reagan is now 9 months old, Rilee has had the cochlear for 6 months, Larry and I have been married for 4 years, and we moved into our own apartment.

Reagan started standing up on her own when she was 8 1/2 months old and now loves to torment her sister when she's trying to sleep. Reagan now crawls from one end of the apartment to the other, loves to play in her room with her sister and absolutely loves to eat!! She now eats real food such as spaghetti, eggs, toast, bananas and today I introduced her to peanut butter and jelly and she LOVED IT. Reagan is now in 9 month clothes and some 12 month clothes and has hair that won't quit!! Reagan sure is so different than Rilee was and we can see what a difference a hearing child is supposed to do and that is amazing in itself. Reagan tries to say "mama" "dada" and "papa" she has been cutting teeth she has a total of 4 two on top and two on bottom. She loves to scream to get Rilee's attention and loves it when her sister plays with her. Whenever Reagan see's Rilee it is the cutest thing she smiles real big and laughs until Rilee comes up to the crib to give her a big kiss on the hand. Here are some pics of Reagan at 9 months old.







Rilee has also made some major improvements in the last 6 months of having the cochlear. We recently went to OHSU (Oregon Health and Science University) last Tuesday to meet with some Child Development people we met with one that specializes in Non Verbal Skills and one with Verbal Skills. Rilee exceeds both. Usually they don't see children that have only had the cochlear for 6 months make such an improvement especially with speaking. Rilee is speaking close to 25-30 words and they said she was doing Amazing!! Here are some pictures of Rilee at 3 years old.








Larry, Rilee, Reagan and I moved into our own place on February 25,2011 and it's absolutely the best place. It's a two bedroom, two bathroom, with a kitchen, dinning room, living room, porch and patio. We couldn't have found a better place to live, it's ten minutes away from Larry's work, it's close to WIC, and other places that would have taken us 45 mintues to get to. Here are some pictures of our new place.












Hope you all have a fantastic weekend and may God Bless you and your family!!

The Allen's

The last couple of months

I haven't posted anything in a while since August, but it has been a long couple of months, but I will catch you up in a flash:

Throughout the last 4 months we have been crazy busy, with all the trips up to Portland for Rilee and taking care of a Reagan I just haven't had time to do this but I am finally getting back on the track. Rilee got her cochlear implant turned on, on the 23rd of September which was amazing I recorded all of them and there on Facebook for everyone to see. Reagan has grown so much with trying to crawl, sit up on her own and now has been eating baby food which is awesome. Rilee has been seeing a teacher every two weeks for the last month and has been repeating so many words. The words that she can say are:

Baba (Mama)
Papa (Randy)
GaGa (My mom)
Reagan
Dada (Larry)
Bye Bye
Hi
Thank You
Please
Sorry (sometimes)
Spongebob (Can you tell whose daughter she is)
Milk
Juice
Cup
Bath
Elvis
Dog

That's just a few things but it's amazing it has only been 2 1/2 months since she had it activated and she is doing so well. Reagan amazes us everyday she has two teeth already which is amazing considering Rilee didn't get her first tooth till she was 13 months old. We are on the verge of potty training Rilee and on Wednesday she was in her big girl panties for close to 6.5 hours and only had two accidents which makes me think that she goes to the bathroom every two hours. Yesterday we got her a more underwear and potty seat so it's more comfortable for her to sit in. The one my aunt gave us when Rilee was one year old broke (we got smaller screws then it needed and it stripped the wood we were so disappointed but it's still cute and Rilee can play with it.)

In October we had a shock in the family. Larry's brother Jacob passed away we are still grieving and will continue to grieve for as long as it takes, but we know that Jacob was a believer in Christ and is in Heaven. God doesn't give anything we can't handle so we just have to believe in him and know he is our protector.

Larry and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary in November it is hard to believe that we have been married 4 years it seems so much longer than that. In the four years we have been married we have lived in 4 different states and have lived in 7 different addresses lol.

Yesterday Reagan had her hearing tested (we have to because of Rilee) and unfortunately the doctor said she failed her test, so we have to do a Sedated ABR on her to see what she can or cannot hear. I don't believe that Reagan can't hear because she responds to so much more than Rilee ever did.

I wanted to let you all know that your support and love throughout these last couple of months have truly been a blessing to our whole family. Hopefully 2011 will be a little easier but chances are with two kids it won't get easier lol. We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The Allen's

Reagan at 2 1/2 months old

Hello everyone I know that it has been a long time since I have written but things have been pretty hectic with a newborn and of course trying to give Rilee all the attention that she deserves as well. Reagan has been doing awesome, she is now wearing 0-3 month clothing and is growing faster than a bean sprout haha. She sleeps from 8PM to around 7 or 7:30 AM and she really is the best baby ever (besides Rye Rye). I was talking with Larry when I just looked at him and said, "How did we get so lucky?" I truly don't know what I did right to have such wonderful children.

Rilee is scheduled to have her cochlear implant surgery on August 25, 2010 in Portland and we are getting nervous and excited at the same time. There are pros and cons for this surgery:

Cons:

They have to drill near her face nerve
She has to go through surgery
She will be in pain
She won't know why she is in pain

Pros:

She will be able to hear
She will be able to learn and grow the way she needs to
She will be able to be POTTY TRAINED
She will have bionic hearing haha

When we went up on the 8th of July for her appointment to see if she was a candidate for the surgery things looked promising. The guy we talked to that specializes in Cochlear Implants said Rilee is a wonderful girl and that he is surprised that she doesn't have any behavior problems. (I thought to myself, "Doc you are not with her all the time she has behavior issues haha")

She will have this device an internal part and an external part. We have 30,000 hair follicles in our ear that help us hear, Rilee has those follicles, but they just work so what they will do is the internal part of the device has 21 electrodes that will act like the hair follicles, they will thread these electrodes into Rilee's cochlea. The surgery will take an hour and a half but it is an in out surgery, but because we live 5 hours away they want us to stay in Portland for 24 hours after her surgery just in case she gets an infection.

The gentlemen told us how much the surgery would cost and Larry and I thought to ourselves holy cow. The device itself cost $8,000 and we get two of them in case something happens to the first one. And the surgery cost $46,000 for a total cost of $62,000 luckily we talked to the insurance and we only have to pay $150.00 of it which considering they are paying for $61,850.00 that is pretty darn good.

Larry and I have been doing good we moved into our own place on the 30th of July and we are enjoying have our own space. We got everything pretty much organized and put away and the girls are enjoying playing in their own room. Rilee is being a ham and Reagan is looking around kicking and doing her own thing half the time. I think she is teething, because she will all of a sudden she will start crying. I will let you all go now love you all and I will keep you updated after Rye Rye surgery.

The Allen's

2 weeks old--Family Update

Well Reagan turned 2 weeks old yesterday and we had her 2 week check up. Reagan is back to her birth weight which is exactly what they wanted. She got her PKU test back and it was normal which is good, not exactly sure what the PKU is but if it is normal that is all that matters haha. We haven't gotten the results back from the EKG that we got done last Friday but they said that they would call us when those results got in.

Rilee has adjusted well to being a Big Sister she loves doing anything and everything for her she gets diapers, wipes and bottle when she thinks she needs it. She runs over to her every time she cries and kisses her to make her feel better and she loves taking pictures with her as well.

Reagan has been doing great we have our moments, but what newborn and mommy doesn't in the first two weeks. I have been living on about 4 hours of sleep which is okay but it is hard to function when you have to chase after a two year old, take care of a newborn and try to do school work all at the same time haha. Again Rilee has been great when she wants to be, she always seems to get into things and stuff when I am feeding Reagan and am unable to get up and catch her when she is doing it and with her hearing impairment it is harder to get her attention.

God has watched over us so much this last year and we couldn't be more blessed and fortunate to be in the situation we are in. Our daughters are everything to us and we are so amazed everyday. I am trying to not get super impatient with Rilee but sometimes I catch myself doing it and feel terrible. Larry always tells me that I need to not try but do and I am praying about it and trying to find my patience. Rilee will be able to hear here in the next month or so and we are so ready for that and to see what that does for her. She will explode in what she knows. She already knows how to point to her nose when we say "nose" or mouth when we say "mouth" but is still unable to say the words themselves. She does say some words like "stop it" "dada" "papa" "down" little words like that hasn't perfected "mama" yet but she will get there.

She still loves her mommy Rilee time when we read and pray at night when I put her down for the night. I make sure we always do that so she knows that nothing has changed. So far the girls go down around the same time Reagan goes down probably 30-45 minutes after Rilee and then she wakes up around 12 AM and gets up again around 4 and then goes back to bed till around 7 which is pretty darn good.

Larry is working a lot and it is getting harder and harder for him to leave us but we know that he is going out there everyday to provide for his family and we could be prouder of him. He has applied for Financial Aid so he could eventually go back to school and get his degree in Business Management. As for my school There are 27 lessons and I am on Lesson 23 so only 4 more to go and I am officially a Paralegal!!!!! I cannot wait till I am able to get a job and we will be able to pay off some debt haha. Well this is our update and we will keep you posted on our girls and their development thank you all for all your support and love we truly appreciate all of you and couldn't do it without any of you!

Reagan Joy Allen

Hello All. Well Reagan Joy Allen has arrived. She was born on May 26,2010 at 7:30 AM 7 lbs 11 oz 19 inches long. Everything went as planned with my c-section and we have a healthy little girl as a result of that. We had to get at the hospital at 5 AM and our surgery was at 7:15 AM. Everyone at the hospital was so great and nice it felt so natural even though I was having a surgery it was definitely a different experience than with Rilee.

Rilee came to the hopsital around 2 PM and was so curious about everything. She actually saw me breastfeeding Reagan and started crying because she thought Reagan was hurting me haha. This whole experience has been so great I have been able to breastfeed with Reagan and having Rilee to help has been wonderful. She grabs her diapers when I need to change her diaper and Reagan's along with grabbing her binky when she starts to cry. She kisses her sister and wants to make her stop crying when she does. All this kid does is sleep haha.

Nights so far have been WONDERFUL! Reagan is on a strict schedule she feeds at 8:30 AM-12:30 PM-4:30 PM-8:30 PM-11:30PM and then she sleeps until 4 or 5 AM and then goes back to bed till around 7:30-8 AM. I seriously don't know what I did to have two wonderful children but I know that God has blessed both Larry and I with amazing children.

Since having Reagan things seem so right I feel like our family is complete. Larry has gone back to work as of Monday and I have to admit I was a little nervous trying to take care of two kids without his help (even though I have my mom it is different) because he had 2 weeks off with Rilee and really took the reigns so I just wasn't sure.

Here as some pictures of Reagan, Rilee, Mommy and Daddy. Thank you all so much for your prayers and thoughts we are sure blessed to have every single one of you in our lives.

The Allens