Texas! Part Two

After our days at the lake we headed back to across TX to see Jared's grandparents and aunts again.

 We had a several hour drive from the lake back to Aunt Icki's. Matney's side of the car was directly in the TX sun and it was HOT. We made a "tent" out of pillows that she loved but made HK very jealous. I spent much of the drive turned around being the pillow police or snack distributor.

We left the lake to go back to the horses. The girls loved it!

We flew hone with quite a rock collection.

 On our last full day in TX Aunt Icki took us to the zoo. It was an absolutly beautiful day and we all had a great time. Ft. Worth has the best zoo any of us had ever been too. I am not normally a zoo fan because I feel bad for the animals in captivity but this zoo is beautiful. If you're ever in the area you should go!

We got to pet a lizard.

 When the lizards turned into  big "dragons" HK wanted to make friends but Miss M was out of there! See the bottom of she shoe in the bottom right of the picture? She took of running for the door!

There was an old town set up in the middle of the zoo and the girls thought it was very cool to sit in the stagecoach.

 

We sat on the giant alligator with Aunt Icki.

Highlight of HK's life trip? Riding a real choo choo train around the zoo.

We had dinner with Jared's grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. If you enlarge this picture you can see HK at the end of the table. She made friends with Uncle Mike and was stuck to him like glue!

Jared and his Grandpa

We rigged the car seats to be strollers. Jared brought home two rolling carts from his office and we attached the carseats with the straps you use to secure them in the car. It worked perfectly! You can check a car seat at the gate at no charge but you have to haul the giant things all over the airport. We didn't need a stroller once we got there and we didn't want to pay to rent car seats. This made it super easy to get the girls through the airport, we didn't have to haul extra stuff and we had their carseats when we got there. People thought we were seasoned travellers!

The girls now make goofy faces when you ask them to smile They look silly but this may be my favorite picture from the trip. I am not sure if, after several days of us invading her house, Aunt Icki was sad to see us go! We had a GREAT time at her house and the girls adore her. Aunt Icki, please come visit this year!  

Here we are about to fly home. We didn't plan this trip very far ahead of time. Something changed in Jared's schedule that allowed us to leave for a week so we jumped at the chance. Thank you again to everyone who rearranged their schedules to accompdate us. We are so very thankful to have had the chance to spend time with you. It was a great trip but seven days is a long time to be away from our house, toys and beds. We were sad to leave but happy to get home. And we apparently brought some TX germs with us. Matney's had a 102 fever since we flew home yesterday. As I washed the fourth load of laundry last night and realized there was a pull-up explosion in my washing machine I knew I was back to my real life. Matney was awake at 4:45am and downstairs this morning. Goodbye TX and welcome back to the real world!

Grateful, Thankful, Exhausted

Let me start this with the ending first. I am sick, worn out and exhausted. My sweet baby daughter is peacefully sleeping in her bed and is a healthy little girl. I am thankful and grateful beyond what I can express in words.

These are pics from my phone so they aren't too clear but do you see the bruise and knot on HK's neck? It came out of nowhere Tuesday morning and has had me anxious all week. I don't ever want to be "that parent" who calls the dr office every minute driving them crazy over a bruise. However, this one had me worried so off to the dr we finally went today.

And I'll give you the quick version - what I thought to be a quick in and out appt to say "just a bruise, thanks for your copay" turned into a several hour ordeal that had my sweet girl's health flashing before my eyes. We ended up with 4 drs in our exam room checking her out. They quickly ruled out a bug bite and I wasn't able to tell them of any time she'd gotten hurt. Next thought - leukemia. Remember when you read that I already told you she is healthy!

I knew months ago that low platelets (among other things, inc brusing) can be signs of cancer. I hate cancer. I've seen cancer take too many people I cared about. It terrifies me. A lot. Anyway, the drs chatted and sent us to a part of Northside Hospital for bloodwork and xrays. I knew exactly what they were looking for. Holding your child down while she's screaming during a blood draw is awful. The reality that blood draws and pain are an every day part of a cancer patient's life had me about in tears. The girls both did great, got lots of stickers and some Teddy Grahams then headed home to wait on results.

Thankfully we have a great dr who rushed the results and called me within 2 hours of us leaving the hospital. She said "I didn't want to scare you earlier but we don't see a bruise like that (with platelet issues and no known trauma) and it not be leukemia". But, thank you Lord for my daughter's health and life, her platelets had increased 200 units since we last tested. No cancer, no other red flags and no broken bones. There is no a better outcome we could have had and no better end to my day.

In the past week I've had a stomach bug, my second migraine ever and now some awful head/chest/fever bug. My house looks like a bomb exploded - for real, I am not exaggerating. Jared is going to be working a ton for a week while we have about 7 days to get ready for some things we're about to do. I am stressed, tired, overwhelmed and physically feel awful. However, when we left the dr this afternoon I didn't care about any of that stuff. The reality is there are many parents who don't get the phone call we got. We know of a sweet 9 year old girl just a few miles from us who got the phone call this week that her cancer is back. I've thought so much about what her parents must be feeling after just 3 months of thinking they could start to relax and try to resume their old precancer life. CANCER SUCKS. My family, another family, any family. It just sucks.

Go hug your kids tonight. Every healthy day is a blessing and we are so thankful for another healthy day in our home!

And now, I'm going to bed!

Caterpillar, Caterpillar

Guess what the $5 stuffed toy at Kohl's is this month? The caterpillar from The Very Hungry Caterpillar and it is no secret around here that HK has a love for caterpillars. There's a tiny version of this guy at Barnes and Noble who she heads for every time we walk in the door. He's $15 and about 8" long and we're too cheap to buy him. The other day when we walked into Kohl's she started screaming "Pillar, Pillar!" before I had even gotten the door closed behind us. I just happened to have $6 on a gift card so it was meant to be! She now sleeps with her Robot and her caterpillar every night. Most girls love dolls and My Little Ponies but not HK! She's her own sweet, unique girl!
And if you didn't know about the Kohl's book/toy deal you should check it out. They always do great books and $5 is a fabulous deal.

Matney (old) Birthday

I will probably move this post back to March in a week but for now I'm posting some old pictures. These are from Matney's birthday weekend. There were so many things they had for Christmas that I saved gifts for birthdays. Here are the girls opening their Tinkerbell bags- they had movies, dolls and purses inside. They were so excited!

 After opening their gifts we went to Panera Bread. Matney LOVES the cinnamon crunch bagel and HK LOVES LOVES LOVES their tub of plain cream cheese. She seriously can eat almost an entire tub in one sitting.

 Then we headed to Discover Mills. An indoor mall in the shape of a circle. The girls enjoy running around - especially the Bass Pro Shop because there are fish and all sorts of stuffed animals. They also enjoy a ride on the pink bus.

Then we rose the carousel. The girls had never been on this particular one before. Matney loved sitting in the spinning tea cup but HK was not a happy camper. She is scared of the horses and there wasn't a bench like at our normal mall. She was one mad rider!

 See Matney on the tea cup with Daddy?

 Happy girl- above. MAD girl - below.

Shew! We all made it. This was a super fun day for all of us and we were excited to spend Matney's birthday with her!

Matney is THREE!

I have such a hard time believing that my baby girl is three! Matney had a fun filled birthday weekend even after a hard time waking up! Once she realized birthdays involved presents she perked up quickly. We had so much stuff left over from Christmas I didn't buy any gifts except a kiddie camera. She loves taking pictures with my camera so I knew this would be the perfect gift. I was right!

She spent all morning taking pictures of everything in the house. Then we went to an indoor play place she likes. We let her pick the activities for the day and she wanted to go to the park but it was too cold. My brave girl went down the tallest slide.

Then we went to the mall for pretzels, trains and carousel rides. I know I am their mama but are these girls not so ridiculously cute? I love them! And yes, Robot goes everywhere with us these days.

Later we went for a pizza dinner and came home for more presents and cake. HK even got a matching new ballerina outfit with Matney. They were so excited!

Matney got a pedicure kit. Both girls are obsessed with having "sparkle toes" and fingers. I am constantly painting tiny nails with glitter polish. For some reason soaking their feet scared the girls so I volunteered to show them it was not scary.

Matney got flower decals for her toes.

Geez, I that darn icing mouse got into the cake again. Every cake in our house for more than a few hours always gets destroyed! Matney opened her gifts from Jared's TX family. HK was never far away from the activity. In this box Matney wanted to color on her new princess pad but HK was eyeing that cute raincoat from the moment it left the box.

She wore it the first day everywhere we went - from 8:30am- 8pm with a two hour break for a nap. I will be purchasing her a raincoat in her size as soon as I find one!

We ate cake for days until I threw the rest away. And the princesses have invaded the house more than I knew possible. Ariel and Belle are M's favorites. She ran around today in her new Belle dress with her Belle doll. So cute!

Matney and her princesses are happy girls right now. Thank you to everyone for loving our girl!