Christian's Trip to the Bahamas

I just realized that I never posted anything about Christian's awesome trip to the Bahamas with his aunt and uncle and 5 of his cousins. Steve's brother, John and his wife Sharon decided to take 6 of their nephews to the Bahamas with them. I think John had an Optometry Conference and thought this would be a great opportunity to enjoy some of their nephews. It was actually great timing for us. Since Steve was unemployed last year and I was pregnant with Arianna, we decided not to take a beach vacation. Christian has always looked forward to our week long beach vacation that we tried to take every summer. So, when John and Sharon called us up and asked us if they could take Christian off of our hands and take him somewhere wonderful, we were ecstatic. Not only will this be the first time that Christian has ever spent more than a few days away from us but he was going somewhere exotic. Christian, of course, was a bit nervous because we were not coming with him. We met John, Sharon, and the others in Atlanta, where they would fly out of, on Sunday, July 4th and they did not come back until Friday, July 9th. Christian had a very good time. They got to swim with the dolphins, feed sharks (which Christian did not participate in), play at the beach, and lots more that I can't mention because I wasn't there. But here are some pics of their trip. I think the best part was the dolphins. He even touched their flippers and fed them fish.

Arianna's 6 month

I can't believe how much time flies. My baby is 6 months old already. I took her to Portrait Innovations to get her pictures made. She was awesome! She was so happy, cute and adorable. I had such a hard time picking the pictures I wanted. There were so many good ones.

Last week she had her 6 mo. check up. She was 18 lbs and 4 ounces and 26 inches tall. She is in the 90% for weight and 70% for height. She is such a happy baby (well, most of the time). Her favorite time of day is the morning. When she wakes up and I come into the room she gets so excited and gives me her biggest smile ever. She is rolling over now and sitting a little bit on her own. She has been teething lately and has already gotten 6 of her teeth in. So, needless to say, she is drooling a lot! She loves to grab at stuff now and she thinks everything she sees is a chew toy. She doesn't like the pacifier but loves to chew on her fingers or suck on her fist. I think I would prefer the pacifier to her hand. She is so interested in the world around her. I can take her to the store and she will just sit in her stroller and stare at everything. Have you ever noticed how bright and colorful Wal-mart or Target can be? She has started eating baby food. She loves sweet potatoes and squash and will tolerate carrots but I don't think she likes it much. She loves applesauce and bananas but not the peaches. Next food to try is sweet peas, YUCK! She does the cutest thing when she is going to sleep. She will "talk" to herself. You can tell when she starts getting tired and ready for a nap because she will start "talking" until she falls asleep. This definitely is a trait she got from her dad! She is such a wonderful baby girl and I am so glad to have her in my life!

Arianna's Surgery

Well, it has been awhile since I posted last. This has been a very busy time for us. But I wanted to write about one of the things that happened in January. Arianna was born with a skin tag and the doctor was concerned so they did an MRI back in November and found that her spinal cord was attached to a fatty tumor (non-cancerous). So, we scheduled her to go in and have her skin tag removed, untether her spinal cord and take out the fatty tumor. Of course, as the time approached for her to go to the hospital, I got a bit nervous and anxious for my baby girl. She was only 5 months old and was going to have major surgery. What parent wouldn't be nervous? Monday, January 11, Arianna and I arrived at the East Tennessee Children's Hospital at 7:00 am in the morning. First we got registered then they called us back where I had to change her into her little hospital gown and then they lab tech came in to put the IV in and draw some blood. At about 9am we went back to the surgery where I had to say good-bye to my baby and wait for it all to be over with. Steve showed up around 10 and we waited. It seemed like a very long time but it was only 3 1/2 hours when we got the call that the doctor was done and that we would be able to come back and see her soon. The surgery was a success and our neurologist, Dr. Harris, came down to tell us that everything went as planned. It took about another hour before we could go back to see her. She looked so small and pitiful in the big crib they had her in. The first night was very bad for us. We had to keep her laying down and could not pick her up. She was in a lot of pain so they gave her some morphine at the beginning but I could tell that it was not working very well. It would last about 30 minutes and then she would be upset again. Her heart rate kept going up and her O2 Sat dropped so they had to give her oxygen. She couldn't hold her formula down. All I could do for her was to hold her little hand and cry along with her. Finally around midnight she was able to drink a little bit of formula so the nurse gave her some Lortab, a very strong pain medicine. Lortab worked wonders. It was still a pretty rough night but finally her levels were going back to normal and she was able to get a little sleep. By the next morning we were able to pick her up and hold her and she looked 100% better. Steve and I were so afraid of hurting her unintentionally that the first couple days that we held her we had a egg crate mattress under her to keep her as comfortable as possible. We ended up staying in the hospital until Saturday because she wasn't taking her feedings very well and they wanted to make sure her bladder was functioning properly. It was a very long week and by Saturday, I was glad to take her home. After a couple of weeks at home, she seemed to be back to her old self again. It was amazing to see how fast she healed. She was such a good, brave baby girl and I am so glad that it is all over with and everything turned out great!

Christmas 2009

This was the best holiday ever! I had sooo much to be grateful for. First off, Steve had finally gotten a good job. It was like a huge burden was lifted off my shoulder. He started his new job November 2. He was also able to come home for Christmas. It was so nice to have some money coming in and to be able to buy presents for my family. That is my favorite part of christmas.

Second, I am grateful for my new baby girl, Arianna. This was her first Christmas. What a joy it has been to finally have the daughter that I have wished for for sooo long. She is such a wonderful joy in our lives already.

We were also happy to be able to go back home to Memphis and spend the holidays with our family. It is always nice to spend time with family. We always have a good time joking around, laughing, playing games, etc.

Our traditional cheese, crackers, and candy cane platter.

Arianna enjoying her gift from Santa! She loves the animals and the music that it made.
Christian got a motorized dirt bike from Santa. He couldn't wait to go out and ride it. Even though it was freezing outside, he decided to take it for a spin. We decided to start a new tradition of making marshmellow treats. Steve and Christian decided to get creative and make one batch green and minty (ewww!) and the other patch red.

Christmas in Memphis with the family:

Mom with her new granddaughter.Opening presents!Justin (whom I refer to now as Hagrid) with his new presents, samarai swords!Ashley with her new orange UT purse. She would fit in well in Knoxville, TN.Camden with his new DS game, Super Mario Bros. He loves Mario and Luigi.

Teething Already

Arianna has been drooling like crazy since she was 3 months old. She has been wanting to chew on everything! Well, last Sunday I had my finger in her mouth letting her suck on it (yes, it was clean) and I felt something sharp. I took a good look in her mouth (which was very hard to do because everytime I opened her mouth she would stick her tongue out and cover up her gums) and saw not one but two teeth on the bottom. What the heck! She is only 4 months old and already has two teeth. And, she is not done! She is still drooling and Steve and I think she has two on the top coming in soon. !
Look at her beautiful smile

Thanksgiving 2009

For thanksgiving this year, we decided to meet up in Harrisburg, PA and spend the holidays with the Vancena's. Steve was going to join us from Syracuse, NY and I was driving up with the children from Knoxville. It was great to be with Steve again for a few days and we even got Jeanie back with us for a few hours on Thanksgiving day. Thanks to Denise's great cooking, Thanksgiving dinner was AWESOME! There were tons of food and I believe everyone got their fill plus some. It has been a long time since I haven't had to cook Thanksgiving dinner. I loved just spending the day with friends and relaxing with my family.

While the family was back together again I decided that we needed to get a family picture. But when I called Portrait Innovations to schedule an appointment they were all booked up for the week. I was so upset that we would not get a family picture made. But, Juli Newill, who is an excellent school photographer, came by to visit and graciously offered to take our picture for us. They turned out really good! Thanks Juli!

Although we enjoyed ourselves a lot (thanks to Denise!), I decided to never, ever travel with the baby alone in the car again. She hates the car seat! I thought that maybe she would get used to it and not cry so much. When we first started out on the road she cried for almost 2 hours. I got so desperate that I called her doctor to see if there was something I could give her to help her sleep through the trip. The nurse told me that she was too young and that I would have to just let her cry. Well, as you can imagine, my trip to Harrisburg, that is only supposed to take 8 hours, took me 12 hours. By the time we got to Denise's house, all of us was pretty miserable. I had to stop for an hour every 2 hours to give the baby a break, and she still cried! Never Again!