Bonnie!

My sister had her baby last Friday night. Baby Bonnie Joy was born on 11-11-11 at 11:52pm weighing...wait for it...11 pounds! The only thing more amazing would have been if she'd been born at 11:11pm. She is soooo cute and so fat! I just can't wait to kiss those fat little cheeks! I've already been shopping numerous times and sent a large box of baby girl clothes. It's so much fun to shop for little girl clothes! And trust me, that box was only 1/3 of the cute clothes I wanted to buy!

Been Busy!

We've been trying to work with Connor on potty training...again! This pic is from the first day where he peed his pants as soon as we got to the park...although I had asked him 15 times if he had to go. So he chose to run around the park sans pants (he DID have underwear on though) instead of going home. Didn't bother either of us, but I think a few of the other kids were traumatized! But since then, he's been doing really well. He gets a sticker each time he goes and has earned lots of new toys. He's starting to be interested in knights and dragons...although animals are still top of the list for him...but he's been earning some new toys and hasn't had an accident in 3 days!


I decided to start my own business 2 weeks ago...hence the title of this post...Been Busy! It's a home based business through a new company called Simply Fun. They make games for children from 3-103! The games are really good quality, fun, easy to learn and most importantly...educational. The boys are really enjoying playing all the games...esp the one with 63 dog figurines! I hope that I can get this business off the ground and share these amazing games with people.

This past weekend I went to an adoption conference. We are not sure if adoption is the way to go for us right now, but it's definitely an option that needs to be investigated. We have plenty of love and room for another child and could really make the difference in the life of a child...and they could make a difference in our lives.

Evan is doing really well. He loves following his brother around doing whatever Connor is doing...and then stealing those toys and making Connor scream. We have days that are filled with screaming and days where they get along very well.

Dave is still enjoying his new job and got his car back last week after the wreck...it took 3 weeks!

The dogs are still massively lazy! Sophie has a bark collar these days which seems to really be working. My goal for November is to walk Bodie daily to hopefully get him to stop digging holes in our back yard...he seems to be looking for something out there. There are at least 10 holes! Unfortunately, Bodie's best dog friend in the neighborhood will be moving in a few weeks...we'll all be very sad to see them go!

ADK 2011

We had a great trip to the Adirondacks this year. We added a day on the front and end of our trip so it was very relaxing not to have to rush to get to the airport or feel like we were missing something. The weather was perfect...mostly 70s during the day. The first morning there though it was 27 and when we stepped out of our hotel room we saw the lake with steam coming off it. It was beautiful.

We decided to take Sam, Nathan and Marley's ashes to Bub Lake this first day and quietly spread their ashes.

Connor and Evan got to spend lots of time with their cousins this trip. They esp loved playing with Braeden and Landon.

We got to take some extra excursions this time since the weather was so nice. We took a scenic ride on the local train. It wasn't too exciting but it definitely gave the boys an experience they wouldn't have gotten otherwise. We also got to go out on the lake on a pontoon boat. We saw an eagle flying over us while we were out there. Connor LOVED that!

This was taken from the train. The leaves were beautiful and so was the weather. The boys played on the beach and even in the water.

Paul and Carol bought everyone reunion sweatshirts and we went and had our pictures taken by the lake (it was too hot for sweatshirts though). It was great to see everyone and take some time away!

2 Year Pics

This was the best picture out of 45 minutes worth of picture taking! Evan was not down with this whole process...not a big surprise! We took some with Connor too, but they didn't come out very well either. I think maybe we'll just make our own number block from now on and take them at home!

Evan is 2!!!

Evan turned 2 last Saturday. We invited a few friends to come play and have dinner with us at Chick-Fil-A. Everyone showed up and we had a good time. We had to wake Evan up from his nap to go to his party so he's still a bit dazed in this picture.

One of the favorite toys he got was a Mickey Mouse camper. Both boys absolutely loved it and insisted on immediately leaving the party after Evan opened it. He got a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and a Mickey toon plane. It looks like Mickey exploded all over our house!

Evan is big enough to take away the baby swing and put up the 2nd big boy swing. Everyone was happy it was only in the 90s and went outside to play! (So far this year we've 90 days over 100 degrees and 131 days over 90 degrees making it the hottest summer ever in Austin.)


Then on Tues. (at 2 yrs 3 days...ironically the same age Connor had his surgery) Evan was diagnosed with childhood intermittent exotropia which is a kind of strabismus or misalignment of the left eye. So for now he has to wear a patch on his good eye for an hour a day to try and help build up the muscles in the weaker eye. We will go back to the dr in two months to reevaluate and see if he needs to move further along the steps of treatment.

I thought getting him to wear the patch would be a nightmare. He's done pretty well though. The 1st day he screamed and clawed for the first 15 minutes, but then I let him eat M&Ms and he calmed down. The 2nd day he screamed while I tried to get it on, but then got the M&Ms and calmed down within 5 minutes and even eventually went on to play. Both days he's gone the full hour with it on, so maybe this can work.

He also went for his 2 yr check up this week. He was 28.4 lbs (50%) and 34 1/2" (50%) which made him a 1/2" and 4 ounces bigger than Connor was at this age...so basically the same! Aren't genetics interesting? His speech is very clear and understandable to many people. He loves to play with Mickey Mouse and little animals and LOVES his blankie!

Baby Nathan

Two weeks ago we went in for a routine visit with the specialist. I was 20 weeks and had no reason to expect anything troublesome. The ultrasound tech did her stuff first, as usual, and said she thought she saw some problems with the heart that the dr would talk to us about. Little did we know our world was about to be turned upside down. The dr came in and said that there were some things to talk about. First off, they saw a penis so we immediately knew that the CVS testing that we'd had at 12 weeks had been inaccurate. They saw an underdeveloped heart that also had a hole in it. They also thought that the hands appeared to be clenched. All of this information lead her to believe that the initial suspicion of Trisomy 18 had been correct and she recommended we do an amnio immediately. I was reluctant because we'd already had a major test tell us something completely wrong, so why should we trust them again. But if the baby only had a heart condition then we needed to deal with that asap so I agreed to the amnio on the spot. They called two days later to confirm that the baby was indeed a boy who had Trisomy 18...which is incompatible with life. We decided to name him Nathan.

The next Monday we went back to discuss what our options were. The dr recommended that we either proceed with the pregnancy or induce delivery now. We didn't feel that either of these were real options for our family. We finally agreed that we would terminate the pregnancy even though I was 21 weeks and there could be damage to my uterus. Because the state considers this an abortion, I had to sign some paperwork and wait the mandatory 24 hr waiting period. We called Dave's sister, Carol, to come help because she had offered to come and help us out during this ordeal.

Carol got in on Wed. around 11am and I had to be at the hospital at 3pm. When we got there we found out that the procedure was not scheduled until noon the next day so I would be spending the night. We are so grateful that Carol was able to come and help with the boys. They loved playing with her and are still talking about her a week later.

Nora and Dave stayed with me in the hospital. The nurses had some trouble getting a vein for an IV so there were some pretty painful points (Nora almost passed out just before the procedure because they we having such a hard time.) The dr came by around 5:30pm to discuss the procedure and put in the laminaria (seaweed sticks that caused dilation). After this procedure I started having a really hard time. I could not pee. It sounds funny now, but it was excruciating. Finally around 11pm I asked for someone to intervene so I could make it through the night. I only slept about 3 hrs (even with a ton of Benedryl) and continued to have problems through the night (almost throwing up at one point).

The next morning they got me ready for the procedure, gave me a spinal and some "forgetful" meds and unfortunately I had to do something I never thought I'd do in my life....terminate a baby's life. The procedure took a bit longer than predicted, but I came out of things ok. It took some time for the spinal to wear off and they wouldn't let me go home until I could pee...which had been an effort the whole stay. But around 6pm I finally got things going again and we headed home. The boys were glad to see us and we were very glad to see them.

I had some troubles with nausea that evening and the next day (Fri) but luckily Carol was staying until Sun so I had time to recover a bit. Physically it was a little more intense than last time but I did recover quickly. Emotionally I'm still not over the first time so another loss (so close together plus losing Marley) has been a bit overwhelming. Connor has really been asking a lot of questions about what's in my belly now and where did he go. He's also still having trouble with losing Marley...he didn't want to take Sophie to the vet this week since Marley never came home. It's an awful lot for an adult to understand let alone a 3 yr old. He's mad that no one is coming to live with us. I can't really blame him, I am too.

Galveston

We went to Galveston over Labor Day weekend. Of course a tropical storm threatened to go there too, but in the end just the winds and a little rain showed up. We took the boys to Moody Gardens aquarium. They really liked the penguins.

The water level of the penguin exhibit was right about Evan's eye line. The penguins were looking him straight in the eye. Connor was really only looking to see whales...which are a bit too big for an aquarium. His whole reason for going to the beach was to find a whale tooth. We ended up convincing him that a shark tooth was a whale tooth...hope he doesn't read this for a few years!

We also went to the Houston Zoo. It was really big and really nice. We were worn out long before we got to see everything. We loved the baby elephants. They were wrestling and running around. It was very cute!

Connor really wanted to see an eagle. This eagle, Liberty, was there and had a sad story of being shot at the age of two and having a broken wing. So after this exhibit, each animal we saw Connor would ask "Did this one get shot too?" Great! He was convinced the giraffes had been shot because 2 of them were laying down.

We got to spend about 20 min at the beach just before sundown. It was really windy and the blowing sand was painful. Connor had fun playing in the waves, but Evan was concerned that his shoes were getting sandy.

The rain was just rolling in and we got to see both ends of the rainbow while on the beach.

Connor had some trouble with his pants once they got wet.

Which way to the flamingos?