Joint Party

Maddie and Brooklyn both have Spring birthdays. This year, life is very busy for our family! Our house is currently under contract and our closing date is quickly approaching. To avoid stress, we decided to celebrate both girls on the same day. We used my parents home and other than a school friend, had mostly family attend. The girls had a blast and now I'm able to move on and start planning Haylee's big first birthday bash!

Phone Pictures-March 2015

Dance Pictures

Last week was recital pictures for Brooklyn's class. They all looked so cute in their costumes! Brooklyn continues to be VERY girlie so she soaked all the attention up! She loved the hair and make-up!

My favorite ballerina

Sweet friends

Haylee's MRI

Dr. Hunter ordered a follow-up MRI for Haylee Grace. On Maddie's birthday, we all woke up early so we could head to the hospital. Haylee did great; though she was hungry and didn't understand why I wouldn't feed her. They put her to sleep, started the IV, then did her scan. I was able to go see her in recovery and it broke my heart. She was crying as she was trying to wake up. Her voice was raspy from the tube and she was hungry. With time, she began to calm down and once I was able to feed her, she was happy again! It was a long day and we all crashed when we got home!

March 13, 2015

Happy 7th Birthday to our Maddie-girl!

Hard to believe that 7 years have already passed since we became parents. I can remember that Spring morning so well, when we woke up early and drove to the hospital. It was an amazing day and I have loved every day since then!

Now, you are a big sister to 3 younger siblings and own that role in such a wonderful way! They all look up to you so much and I'm proud of the big girl you are becoming!

You are still our headstrong first-born but that doesn't cause as many discipline issues as it use to. ;) You excel at school, other than math, and absolutely LOVE to read! We've been blessed with great, Christian teachers the past two years and I'm pleased at all the information you've learned from them!

You are our little athlete, for sure, and you've just started your first season of softball/t-ball. I think you may turn into quite the runner too. You are incredibly fast!!

Your well-check is in a few weeks, but for now: 

-wear 6x clothes. You're long and skinny! And size 13 shoe.

-you have 2 adult teeth on bottom and 1 on top. We are waiting for 2 more on top to come in!

-recently started to learn how to ride your bike without training wheels

-you are tall like your daddy and already come up to my chest! You'll pass me by before too long!

-still a little artist! You enjoy drawing, coloring and painting.

Maddie-we love you so much! Happy birthday!

Haylee Grace-9 months

On March 2nd, Haylee Grace turned 9 months old! It's been a busy month for our sweet girl. We started off March with a double ear infection that the ENT discovered. Last week, she had a follow-up MRI (separate post) and this week we got those results plus had her well-check. Here's all the current information about our little trooper:

-the MRI showed injury to an area of her brain caused by the newborn meningitis. It's called periventricular leukomalacia. Dr Smith has told us that we may never seen any effects of this. But if we do, it will be in the areas of muscle tone, balance, coordination, etc. We'll go back to see Dr. Baker again, the neurologist that treated her in the NICU, and see what she has to say. We've also been referred to Early Childhood Intervwntion for further evaluation. Haylee qualifies for their therapy services if necessary. 

-Squishy continues to be a fitting nickname! You weigh 21 pounds even and are 29 inches long! Both ranging in 80th-85th%. You wear size 4 diapers and mostly 12 month clothes.

-you love eating your baby food, puffs, ritz crackers, yogurt melts and nursing still! 

-Sleep great! Usually, you go down around 7 and typically sleep till 5 or so. You wake up when you hear your daddy's alarm. I'll nurse you and lay you back down until we leave to take Maddie to school. You take a morning and afternoon nap.

-everyone talks about how sweet, cuddly and easy going you are! It's so true! You handle things better than most babies after all you've been through. It's easy to pacify you or get a smile. You put yourself to sleep and only cry when something is legitametly bothering you. Easy baby!!! 

-you are really enjoying your exersaucer right now and have a few favorite toys! You love to grab people's faces and give sugars!

-you've almost mastered sitting up. No crawling or pulling up though, so you are around a 6 or 7 month level. Not significantly behind but ECI will help with this.

-ENT says your hearing is good! Huge praise!