Celebrating our Baby Boy in California

We started the long drive to California a bit later than planned but made it all the way to Vegas and in bed at the hotel by 1am. The next morning we took our time getting ready since we had a much shorter ahead of us. We went to Breakfast and walked around the casino they have an Equestrian Center there and a Horse show was going on.

They were show casing these cars and of course what does our little poser do... hammed it up for the camera. People around us got a kick out of watching her pose. We started are drive and visited with a few of Danny's customers along the way then finally made it to Nana's house that afternoon. It was a LONG 2 days of driving my legs were not happy about being in the car that long at 29 weeks pregnant. I was sure glad that we were not going to attempt it at Christmas time, no way this body would want to travel any farther along.

 Baby Shower Time!!! Our best friends Kristian and Josh were extra generous to us this trip they gave us a baby shower and hosted Brooklyn's Birthday Party. We had a great night seeing family and friends and our little man got spoiled.

Lots of great gifts and diapers!!! Thank you everyone for your generosity it is so appreciated.

We got to meet baby Avery for the first time, she is quite a cutie so lucky to have another niece and cousin in the family!

Danny was excited to finally meet the newest niece and put her to sleep!

Ah Cindy my old co-worker came it is always great to see you Cindy, thank you for coming!

B was so excited to see her cousin, help feed her and hold her.

Cousin Lisa, Luca and Auntie Carmela

Cousin Darla and Caleb

Claudia and Kristian (our gracious host)

Ah Best Friends together again!

Great Grandma Adair and Brooklyn

Paige and Avery

Sis-in-law Cara, Avery and me!

Surprise!! The Kaatz family came it was so great to see them and Deven again

The Cecil family came too! Got to meet baby Dax for the first time too.

My family was there but they don't pose for pics! Next to Dani is Jeanette, Jen, Karen, and Melinda. My mom was their too she is in one of the above pictures helping with presents.

Auntie Carmela and Auntie Marsha

Lisa, Holly and Luca

 Grandma Adair with her boys - Mark and Danny

I finally got to hold Avery after she was passed around all night! We had a great shower as you can see, we are so blessed.

The first half of busy November!

November was a busy month full of celebrating! First daddy was a good sport and let Brooklyn put "makeup" on him so he can "be pretty". She likes to take my makeup brushed and pretend she is getting ready with me and putting on her makeup. It amazes me how much she pays attention she seems to always use the right brush on the right part of her face.

She is my little helper, she loves to help me clean and organize, granted she is not always super happy about putting away her things but when she is in the mood she does a great job. You can tell on her face that she is so proud of herself because she knows you are proud of her. It is a good thing most of the time sometimes she can sound a bit bossy telling her friends what to do.

We started a jump, jive, boogie, woogie class through the city of Meridian with cousin Clara for the month of October/November. The last few weeks I had to watch Annde on Thursday's so she got to go with us. It was a super cute class the girls enjoyed it.

Onto the celebrating .. Birthday Parties for cousins Lucy and Jake!

The Birthday girl at her Oliva themed party

Aunt Stephanie read them an Olivia book.

They all took pictures with Oliva

Then of course always some cousin love pictures to follow

Clara and Brooklyn trouble in the making!

Jake had a football themed party, 10year old boys are crazy!! They played football outside with Richard and Danny, it was cold and snowing but they did not care. The girls stayed inside, danced, played games while the boys ran around to stay warm outside.

That evening we watched Madagascar 3 it was a funny movie and at the end Brooklyn started dancing to the credits. She danced and made up her own routine for about 20 minutes. we were impressed by her moves and of course have captured it on video that we sent to the family to enjoy!

It was Hat day at school

They had their thanksgiving feast at Preschool too. It was cute to see them dressed up as Pilgrims and Indians. They had quiet the spread drumsticks complete with all the fixings and Pumpkin pie.

Parties in Idaho are done now off to California for Thanksgiving break, a baby shower and Brooklyn's birthday!

July...so far!

Well so far July has been a crazy busy month and it is only the 13th. We started out going to the waterpark with the Wheelers and O'Connors, and I have no pictures because it is wet and holding a camera while chasing little kids do not mix, but it was super fun. I had never been it will have to be something we so again before summer ends.

Then July 3rd, Danny and I were working in the office little Miss B was quiet in the kitchen, she came in and her daddy noticed something was different.
 "Did you cut your hair?" daddy says
B turns around to run out knowing she did something wrong and as I am turning around to see, daddy says, "Oh, she cut the back too." Mom freaks "why did you do that, now you will have to get a boy haircut no more Rapunzel hair."
B starts to cry. "I don't want boy hair"
Mom beyond upset, "Well to late for that you ruined your hair."
A Little dramatic mom, YES I will admit I was so upset, always knew in the back of my head that this could possibly happen after all it happens to a ton of parents was I prepared for the devastation I would feel NO. After she sat in a VERY LONG timeout we went to my room and sat on the bed I explained why it was not a good idea and of course totally started crying because mommy was so sad that she was gonna have short hair again, no more piggies, braids etc.. It was like starting over after almost 3 years of waiting for some hair.

What I found near and in the kitchen trash.

The bangs hard to tell in this picture.

The saddest of all the back, so for now it will be in a permanent ponytail until it grows out a little more. If I was to cut it now it would be higher than her ears and probably have to be shaved in the back. :(
Oh the joys of children

The forth of July and the only picture I took. We went to Jenny and Victors for a mellow get together. This picture is for you Nana of the outfit complete with shoes that you sent. Thank you

Then July 5th we got a visit from Auntie Dina and Uncle Angelo for the weekend and to celebrate Uncle's 60th birthday. They arrived in time to come with me to pick up B from ballet, she was SO happy to see them. Then we went to Red Lobster for lunch, a place Uncle doesn't get at home. We got an amazing free dessert that was all chocolate B was in heaven and kept telling Uncle I love you, happy birthday as she practically licked the plate clean. That's my girl.

Friday we went floating down the Boise River, it was in the 90's so the freezing water felt good.

Someone made a little rock garden along the way, it was pretty cool to see.

After we got home took little naps and got ready to go to dinner for Uncle's birthday. We got the neighbor girl to babysit, it was so great to have someone close by.

Just got dinner everything was super yummy!! We took them to Barbacoa it is a fun different restaurant they enjoyed it as much as we did.

The pepper mill.

Uncle's Cotton Candy for his birthday it has a candle in the middle. It was quite yummy been a while since having cotton candy. We of course also got the fried cheesecake bites with 4 different dipping sauces SO yummy! We took a little walk along the river, went to Cabela's (uncle's favorite store) then went to Delsa's for ice cream. Yep we ate it up but it was so yummy!!

Then Saturday morning we got woken up early my B and the famous fever fairy. I was so bummed she was 2 days away form surgery to remove those pesky tonsils that cause the fevers(so we are hoping). I called the Peds office they wanted to see her so off to downtown we all went they tested her for Strept throat (her LEAST favorite thing EVER) it takes 3-4 of us to hold her down plug her nose and fight to get her to open her mouth. Poor girl has had those q-tips down her throat one to many times.  I thought it would come back negative since it was day one of the fever, but it was Positive so they gave us Antibiotics. I talked to both surgeons Saturday Afternoon and they both said since she was starting antibiotics and this was recurring every 3 weeks that she needed to have the Surgery!! Yea such a relief.  Brooklyn was getting super high fevers up to 106 and strep throat about every 3 weeks.

 B laying on the bed with daddy, she was nervous that morning not really talking and telling me they are going to look in my throat and it is going to hurt. She was not happy about putting on the gown and the bracelet didn't matter that mom and dad had to wear them too.

Daddy got to go in the operating room with her while they put her to sleep. They called it his blue bunny suit she thought that was pretty funny. Grandma Etta came to sit with us during her surgery. She had some happy juice right before and it didn't take long for them to put her out.  Dr. Beck was done with her Tonsils and Adenoids in less than 30min. she said they were nasty the adenoids kept clogging her suction. Then the Epigastric hernia took a little longer but went well. When she woke up she was drooling, slurring her words, having a hard time staying awake, and trying to rip her IV out. I warned them she would do that they wrapped it up, but then she complained it was tight. I held her for a while until she woke up more then she went to daddy. She went in to the hospital with 103 fever and got out of surgery with a normal time, AMAZING! no more 5 days of high fevers yes please.

She refused to eat a Popsicle or drink anything. We kept telling her that was the only way her IV was coming out but she still refused. She was in pain and pretty nauseous like her momma gets. She had quite a bit of air in her belly from the tube down her throat. Once she burped that up she seem to feel a little better. I asked for a 7up and she was interested in my drink so we finally got her to take a couple sips. Hooray finally they could take the IV out. She did not like that her panties were off after the surgery. We started our day getting to the hospital at 8:30 and were at home @ 1:30.

On the way home she had @ 1 1/2  cans of 7up hence the smile, she never gets to drink that much soda we always take it away. But that was short lived she threw it all up along with a ton of mucus when we got home. She ate Mac and Cheese the first night, but not much since then mostly drinks and Popsicles. She has been super whinny which can't really blame her she doesn't feel good and is no quite sure what is going on. She is taking great naps and going to bed every night by 8 and sleeping relatively well. Sleep is what she needs right now. It has been a long HOT week ready for this oddly hot temps to go down.

Thursday I got to Boy Scout Day camp it was an all day long event it would have been fine except that it was 103 degrees outside SO hot and of course today is in the 80's with a breeze.

So that has been our eventful July so far, hoping we are in for a slow rest of the summer. Thank you to all our family and friends that said prayers for B the power of Prayer is amazing. Thank you to everyone that send cards, packages B has been in heaven with coloring, painting, stickers, Etc.. She is so loved we are so lucky.

June

This month we had a few visitors Cousins David and Brian stayed with us for the weekend before heading to Washington for work. We had not seen them since last summer so it was a nice surprise, B took a little while to warm up but once she did Brian was her Best Friend.

 We went over to Cabela's for family day, they had lots of things for the kids to do. Brooklyn got to shoot a bow.

She was not so sure the second time when it pinched her finger but she tried it.

This month we also started Swim lessons at BSU 2 days a week. The first day she did not want to have anything to do with the instructors they were boys, but she was not the only one intimidated by the boy instructors so they brought another girl to help. The boys are all really nice, but I am OK that she is afraid of Sebastian with long hair and tattoos we have plenty of time to deal with her and boys.

 This was a big moment when she let the other boy instructor take her. I do have to say the boys are better teachers the girl doesn't really make them try to do things.

 B is in the white and pink suit she is eyeing Sebastian to her right making sure he does not come near her. He does and she bolts out of the pool. Now that we have been a few times she will at least give him a high five after class but still has a hard time looking at him in the eyes.

 Starfish back float

 Crab walks around the pool

 Playing Red, Yellow and Green light to learn how to keep their legs straight when swimming. Over all is is a good experience might be better to have lessons everyday, but these fit our schedule and budget so for now this works.

Other Brooklyn news in the middle of the month she got another one of her famous fevers which then turned into Strep Throat. She would go from 106 - 104 with Motrin and Tylenol. She has been getting these fevers for quite sometime now but the past 6 months they have been every month and this is her 2nd time with strep since April. So the verdict which we are really hoping will fix the problem is to have her Tonsil/Adenoids out and while we are at it she has a Epigastic Hernia above her belly button that they are going to remove at the same time. 2 different doctors, 1 operating room, same hospital, HUGE bill. Oh the things decisions we have to make for our children can be nerve racking, but hopefully will be for the best. I hate having her get such high fevers all the time and giving her all that medicine can not be good for their little bodies.  Plus she always seems to get them when we go out of town or have visitors, not fun for anyone. So July 9th we will be going to St. Luke's in the morning say some extra prayers that B and mommy will survive this and we can have our happy  healthy little girl back.