Early Mother's Day

Here is my handsome stud of a husband, saying Cheese!!


Michaela enjoying her sprite! (water....called sprite!)


And not to be outdone - here is Michaela's Cheeser!!

What a wonderful Saturday! We had lunch at The Olive Garden and then had some friends over for yummy root beer floats. Enjoy the pictures grandparents!

Getting Better!

These pictures are from before surgery, but we haven't taken any fun ones recently, and Grandma is having withdrawls, hence, some presurgery pics! I think this is the last round of pictures of while my mom was here.....

Michaela and her friend Jackson on the way to the park. We couldn't make them look at us!!


In case you are ever jonesin' for a Michaela kiss - just make this one larger, it's like virtual reality!


Mommy and the Ladybug :)


Here is Jackson and Michaela, I was trying SO HARD to get them to look through the bars at the same time, this one isn't too bad!

Still trying......


At least the moms were looking!!! (Makenna is hiding.....)


Hanging out outside. (see that dirt patch? yeah, I am not a gardner, but I tossed (yes TOSSED) some seeds out there.....so we shall see!!


Grandma and the Michaela

Good Bye Tonsils - Hello MISERY

On Monday the 27th Michaela had her tonsils and adenoids taken out. All the doctors we have ever seen have told us that her's are HUGE and they have all wanted to take them out. A regular person has a size one up to a size two. Michaela's are were a 4+ but her last doc said if there was a category over 4+ he would put her at like a 7! So we decided it was time. He cautioned us that her throat would be sore for about a week, but that tylenol was all he ever used with his patients and they were fine. So at 6 am Monday morning we were on our way, stocked with gatorade, sprite, tylenol and a fancy new water bottle to make the drinking fun! The nurses let me escort her all the way back to the or room - complete with my own pair of scrubs - so that I could be the one to hold her when they put her under. Let me interupt myself here to tell you that this may not be th ebest policy! I thought it might help her, and myself, to see eachother one last time as she was falling asleep. BUT, it was so hard!!! It took the wind out of me and the tears to attention to see my sweet baby slip away from us so quickly! The nurses kept telling me it was alright and I kept telling htem - Don't watch me! Make sure SHE is alright!!! Needless to say, I don't know how many other moms will be invited back - sorry ladies!

Okay, one of the other things I told the nurses is when securing Michaela's IV, to keep in mind they have NEVER in their ENTIRE career met a Michaela. I told them to secure it like they would a mental patient - and I think they thought I was joking!!! Literally two min into recovery - she ripped it out! I wasn't surprised, but a little unnerved to see blood belonging to my child seeping out of her IV line. (Too graphic? Try being there!) We got that taken care of, she didn't get hooked back up because she was so upset and for the next hour she screamed at the top of her lungs. Screamed because it hurt, screamed because she was mad/sad/scared and screamed out of frustration. Thank Heavens we found a little red car out in the hall and used it to push her around the hallway, stopping at each corner for a "pit stop" to get her to drink. (PS: I realize that there is STILL a pacifier attached to my toddler - we are working on it. But we are also working on potty training, manners and the ABC's so give us a break alright?!)

Okay, this is getting a little too long. We got her home, she was MISERABLE and just cried for about six hours. She wouldn't drink anything and we tried it ALL. So the doc had us syringe her 3 times every ten min to keep her very sore throat moist. Thats fun - hold a screaming two year old down and squirt her with cold water for 4 hours. NOT!!!! I called the on call doctor to see what he thought, he gave her a Lortab elixer and for a few min, she seemed to be doing alright- we even got some "cheese" out of her!

AND THEN she had an allergic reaction to the Vikadin and we went to the ER - only to learn that she couldn't take it anymore and we were back to only tylenol, but THIS TIME, he said to only use suppositories to ensure she didn't spit it out instead of swallowing it. SAD - as if this wasn't miserable enough for her! Fast forward to Thursday night and we have a vomitting, listless, sad, very dry, dehydrated baby so we took her to the ER again, but this time begged for an IV because I thought if they could make her feel a little better by hydrating her, she just might turn the corner and bounce back a little bit. And I was right! One bag of flud, two hits of Morphine and one hit of anti nausea medicine, and my kiddo was laughing, talking, and using her best manners with the nurses! We got her home and she ate soup, goldfish?!, gatorade, ice cream...... she just wanted to eat! We were laughing so hard because she was walking around like she was superpregnant or something - her gut was just so heavy!

Things are much better now, the only thing she will eat is still goldfish crackers, and the occasional popsicle, but I won't complain for a few more days. My advice to you is that if your doctor wants to take your baby's tonsils out - DON'T!!! Wait until you can reason with your kiddo, so they understand that if they take the tylenol by mouth you don't have to shove it anywhere, and if they drink even though it hurts, their throat will stay moist enough to hurt less, and lower their fever! All in all I regret having it done so soon, and feel that the doctors should have taked her age into more consideration, because I trusted they knew better than I did about timing. Go with your instinct, but also talk to people who have had it done too - it HURTS! And it's too hard to explain that when you are two. Anyway, here are a few more sad pictures.

Michaela and my mom passing time away......PS Shout out to Hilary and Mishali for the awesome care package they sent! Despite tons of new books, library books and other toys, all she played with/read and snuggled was what you sent!!!

Random family shot sans make up for me, dinner for Jordan and Tonsils for Michaela!!


So sad :(


Obviously we became couch dwellers.....


Here is my brilliant idea. Since she loved it in the hospital and was taking "pit stops" to drink, we bought one for home and made her eat and drink if she wanted to sit in it! We called it the drive in!!!


I believe this time she was watching Rapunsel....for the millionth time.....

Too Many Things to Name!!!

Who needs a fork for cake??? Not Michaela :)





Best of all - our Cousins came to cisit!!!!! Morgan, Kristin, Luke and Miriam are on their way to Seattle, but were kind enough to make a two night stop at our house!!! We didn't see too much of Jordan and Morga, Halo Three had them occupied, but we had so much fun while they were here. Hope to see you again soon guys!




Bubbles with Grandma....




And video.... bubbles, more bubbles and a story, and most importantly - SUPERHEROS!!!

Out in the Sun!!!

Grandma is in town!!!! And so is the SUN! We have been waiting SO LONG for a day as beautiful as today was. Hence, the picture overload.

This little girl LOVES her shadow! She has such a blast with it - so I took a few pictures of Michaela and her shadow on a walk today.

Park Fun!



This picture is going down in History as one of the GREATS, can you all just feel her little vibe in this one?!!?!


Check out that awesome form when she runs! My track coach would be salivating right now!!!




Horray for sidewalk chalk! Not so much for black sweats MIXED with sidewalk chalk!!!

Belated Easter Pics!

Hands Down, the Most beautiful girl I have ever seen........well her and Reagan anyway!!!

Don't forget!

We are going private, so if you haven't emailed me your email address, or if I don't already have it and you want to keep looking at our super fabulous life - let me know!!!

Birthday Party

Random Family Picture from Easter.....

So if you read the below entry, you know that we were able to to to Kansas City this weekend for Davea's birthday. It was SO WONDERFUL to see her - I just can't tell you enough how much she means to me. I LOVE HER! What a beautiful lady. Anyway, below are some of the best pictures we got....... Thanks Glenda and Stacey and Ariele for being there too!

Birthday Cake!!!

Michaela got to help blow out the candle!!

Kisses goodbye! (yeah, I look GREAT, but I couldn't find a better one! - focus on the kiss!)

Aren't they just Beautiful!!!!!

Playing tag at the hotel.

Me, Michaela, my mom and Davea, once again, we all look AWESOME but it's the concept - not the actual image!!

And then we stopped at Liberty Jail, and this was the best family picture we got! Ahhh - two year olds!