Fall is Falling

It's absolutely beautiful in Colorado right now.  The trees are red, orange and yellow and their leaves are everywhere.  It looks like a little piece of heaven.  Andrey and I have been out for a lot of walks now that it's not hot, and she loves to step on the leaves and hear them crunch under her feet.  She laughs and runs to find the next one.  Melts. My. Heart.

I took her out for an impromptu photo shoot (it's been too long) to my favorite park.  She had a blast and was such a good model.

Those cheeks get a lot of kisses around here.

You can see her scar in this one.  It's healing perfectly!

Fall, these pictures, that scar.  Reminds me of God's goodness.  I feel so grateful to be a part of this life.

Cystic Hygroma Surgery

It's over!  A surgery we knew would happen since she was 22 weeks in-utero, is done!  I'm so relieved and thankful for the results.  

I wanted to get her a stuffed animal that would represent her surgery, so we bought a kitty.  She loves cats and says "meow" all day long.  It looks like a bear, but I promise it's of the purring type.  Here she is the day before surgery.

The morning of was a whirlwind.  We got up at 5:30am and through shaky nerves got to the hospital.  Below we are at the hospital waiting for the surgeon to come talk to us.  I was a nervous wreck here.  But look how cute my baby is in that hospital gown!

The doc came, spoke to us briefly and it was time.  Nate took Andrey back to hold her while she went under.  I couldn't do it.

We waited and waited and cried and cried.  

When the doctor finally came out, it had been about 90 minutes.  The longest of my life.  He said immediately that she did fine, and was recovering.  Then he told us the cyst had been larger than expected, going all the way to her skull and forward to her carotid artery.  She has a tube in her neck to drain all the junk that collected in the large hole left by the cyst.  It's still there and will remain until Thursday this week.   

We waited again for a nurse to take us back to see her in the recovery area.  We could hear her crying all the way down the hall.  She was miserable and inconsolable.  I held her and tried to soothe her, but she wanted her dad.  So sweet!  After about 30 minutes we were transferred to the room we'd stay the night in.

Here she is in our overnight room.  It took her a while to fall asleep - but the morphine helped!

Her IV was in this arm and it really bothered her.  She would move it and would cry and point to it saying, "please! please!".  

Laying in my lap, not feeling very good.  You can see on her right side the bandage and discoloration from the procedure.  

And here she is now, at home and doing great!  She's such a trooper!

I took a picture of her Frankenstein looking neck, but decided not to put it online.  It's really gross and I'm not sure it's appropriate.  We are grateful for answered prayers and a God who is merciful.  Our little girl is okay.  

We are beaming with joy.

Miss Me?

You probably didn't miss me, but I missed you.  It's been a long blog break and it's time to get back on track.

We've been busy.  Andrey had an MRI, and it showed her cyst is growing.  She will have surgery on September 28th.  I'm terrified.

I was diagnosed with Meniere's disease.  It sucks.  But now I know I'm not crazy.

We finished our backyard.  I'm not in the mood to go take pictures.  I'll get to it eventually.

Those are the facts.  Facts are boring.  Pictures are fun!

In other news, I'm getting ready to launch my photography website!  Thanks to my friend Audrey (below) I'm going to be legit!

This whole photography business is overwhelming.  But I love taking pictures and it's worth it!  

I'll try to be a better blogger.  Maybe.

Take Me to the Circus

The circus came to town!  Not the elephants and acrobats circus.  The break a beer bottle and win a goldfish circus.  We were stoked!  (By the way, you'll never see me going to a real circus...I hate seeing the animals living that way - and since I'm not supposed to scream profanities at people, it's best I don't go.)

Little miss blue eyes was so excited to go down the road to enjoy the festivities.

Cue the creepy circus music.

We had $5 with us, and that meant we couldn't do much.  We wandered in circles until Nate finally played (and lost) a game.

Andrey was blissfully happy.  She was staring at everything and in obvious awe.  It was so fun to watch her watch.

She wanted to play a few games, and was trying to steal stuffed animals.

She spent a good portion of the time on her dad's shoulders.  She pulled out wads of his hair and drooled all over him.

Maybe when she's older, and we have $10 in our pockets, we'll give the circus another try.

Sister Friend

Yes, my sister is my sister...and my friend.  I was so glad she allowed me to take some family photo's while she was here.  I shamed her for going to cheesy portrait studios in the past - and told her to let me give her fam a try.  My poor sister didn't have any pictures of all five member looking at the camera, and I set out to change that!  Here are some of my favorite shots.

Love you sista, and your whole fam too.  Including baby number 1,890.

Click Click - The Cell Phone Pics

The last few weeks have been busy.

We went to a new restaurant in our hood, and paid an arm and a leg for mediocre pizza.  Andrey loved the free water.

My pregnant sister, her hubs and their three boys came to town.  We spent the 4th of July together.  Much of that time her youngest was undressed.  I love his tummy!  It was very hot outside (see the carpet on my parent's deck?) so they swam and swam the day away.

We missed the family trip to Glenwood Springs.  We decided it would be more fun for little Pumm to get sick.  No, it wasn't more fun.  See her hygroma in this picture?  It was swollen and yucky.  And she felt awful.

Once her temp reached 104.6 I burst into panicked tears and screamed at Nate calmly asked Nate to call the Pediatrician who sent us to the hospital.  Andrey did great listening to the British nurse and watching some TV in her hospital room.

She loved being held all day by her daddy.  And he was in heaven holding her.  They snuggled in our bed, and Nate thoroughly enjoyed all the attention he got to give her.  It was pretty sweet!

She didn't feel great a few days later, but was able to rally for a BBQ that night.  See those tired eyes?  Sucky.

We saw my sister and her fam once more (and I took some fun family pics!).  Kade kindly offered her a doll.  She took it, and hit him over the head with it.  We're working on being nice.

 Part of being nice, is hugging.  Right?  So we forced them to hug.  And they did.

The next day she was starting to get back to normal.  But we had a lot of diaper changes, ifyouknowwhatimeanandithinkyoudo.  So she spent most of the day in a t-shirt and diaper.  We built a fort and she absolutely loved it!

Finally, I've painted her toenails!  I've been so excited to do this.  My little girl sat perfectly still and let me slowly paint.  After they were done, she said "woah mommy" while pointing at them.  I love this girl!

Around These Here Parts

It's been hot around here.  

Our poor dog can spend about 3 solid minutes outside before she's ready for the air conditioning.

Ponytail!! 

Andrey and I haven't been out to play for a few days.

She's getting pretty sick of playing inside.

So, I decided we could go out and play on the shaded porch.

Seven minutes later she was crawling back inside.

In other news, we're making progress on our backyard.  We now have our patio in!  Notice the dog, in the shade.

And our ground has been leveled and prepared for sod.  And Nate slowly built a lovely retaining wall.  He told me to leave him alone while he worked on it.  Apparently I'm not a helpful audience.

And as with all projects, we learned we have another unplanned for cost.  We will now have to repaint the house.  It's been destroyed by the deck paint.  Yay.