Annaliese turns 3

Annaliese was telling me that it was her birthday and that she was 3 years old, but poor thing doesn't realize yet that her birthday is going to be overlooked by Christmas alot.  We celebrated Christmas with presents for the kids and then after that had a cake for Annaliese.  She loved the cake cause it was so cute and it was ice cream.

I tried to get her and Santanah together for a picture a few times but they each were doing their own thing all morning.  Kev managed to get Santanah to sit for a very short time with one of the musical snowmen, but she wasn't really going for it.  

Another Christmas down and another birthday celebrated for Annaliese.  

Avah's First Christmas

Avah got a special visit from Santa since she was going to be spending Christmas in the hospital.

This is definitely a good picture to tell how small she is compared to Santa's hand.  She's still doing good and is even getting fed breast milk every feeding and tolerating it.  That's a good sign.  Next Christmas she'll be sitting on Santa's lap!!

Little Avah

The day after I wrote my post Jessi went into the emergency room with contractions that could not be stopped and after a long painful day they did a c-section and baby Avah was born.  Her due date was February 25th so she was delivered at 27.4 weeks.  She weighed in at 2.9 lbs and 14.5 inches long.  Little Avah is very tiny and has a long road ahead of her.  She will be in the hospital until her February birthday unless she just goes crazy with doing all the things that will help her to develop. She will share her birthday with her daddy, who was born on 12/14/82.

This picture was right after she was born.

Then this picture was later in the afternoon the next day and
they had already taken out her breathing tube.
Which is a good sign, she is breathing on her own.

We will have to just wait and see day by day how she develops and how well she gains weight and can tolerate all the things that are going on with her.  She gave us a couple of big stretches and movements when we were talking to her which was so cute, so she is listening and doing her best.  

12-13-14

It's such an unusual and once in a life time date that I thought today was a good day to finally make a post.  I changed the background to match the season and here I am writing.......about what I'm not sure.  I have not posted since August, and that's just wrong.wrong. I've had alot of things happen since I last posted.

Sisser had gallbladder surgery.
She had been having these stomach pain issues for a while and then finally she just couldn't take it anymore and it got really bad.  She went to the emergency room and right away they knew it was her gallbladder and that she needed to have surgery.  We spent hours waiting for her to have surgery, but then the time came and she was feeling no pain.

This is a picture of her the day she went to the emergency room before
her surgery and then the day she was leaving.  Quite a bit of difference.

Santanah had her first birthday!!!

She was so cute, she didn't know what to do in this pretty little dress.  But then once we gave her her birthday cupcake, she knew it didn't matter what happened to her dress, it was all about the food.

We went camping.  
I was still off work to rehab my knee from my surgery, so Kev and I went up on the rim for about a week.   We got in some cool weather, some fishing and also a few hikes. I was really good about making sure I got my exercises in since I was going a whole week with no PT.

This is one of our favorite places to go hike.
It is an old logging road that is now closed off for animal preservation.
We have occasionally seen some elk back in here,
and it's also where we saw the bear a few years ago.   

I flew to New York.
I guess I would have to say the most exciting thing to happen while I was off was that I went to New York to see Janet's new apartment and to visit her and Diane.  It was so fun, I'm so glad I went.  When Dick, Janet, Diane and Mary drove to NY to move Janet I really felt like I missed out.  So this trip gave me a chance to see where she lives now and also to visit with Diane and see Sean & Lizzie.

I had a great time and we did some fun stuff.  We went down the shore for a few days, went into the city a couple of times, rode the subway, had dinner at Lizzie's restaurant, just all around fun.  Plus again I was not going to PT so I stayed on top of my exercises and walked and used the gym at Janet's apartment.  

World Trade Center

We were waiting for our subway after having a fun day/night in the city.
Jan wanted the practice on where to get on and off the subway.
It was my first time on the NY subway.  

We had just come from dinner at Lizzie's restaurant and what a sight,
the Empire State Building at night.  

Once I came home from NY it was almost time for me to go back to work so reality was starting to set back in.  My 3 month surgery vacation was coming to an end.