Happy (belated) Birthday to my girl!

I'm extremely late is posting this. I will take the bad mom award for this. But I have been feeling pretty lousy lately with this pregnancy going in full force right now so maybe I have somewhat of an excuse.

Happy 2nd Birthday

Audrey Elizabeth!

( her birthday was last Friday- you can get on my case if you must! naughty mama!)

You are such a blessing to us. You are indeed our little girlie-girl! Always loving anything frilly, pink, and sweet! You are so beautiful. Your smile lights up our hearts and gives me the butterflies! I love how your little girlie arms will wrap around my neck with a big hug and your kisses are the sweetest thing ever! Your brothers are so in love with you, they can't believe how fun it is to have a sister. They would protect you with everything in them. You are Daddy's little princess. He loves his "girl"! We love watching you as you are growing out of being a baby and into a little girl. We look forward to seeing what a beautiful little lady you will become. Happy Birthday my sweetie pie, I hope you know how much you are loved and cherished! 

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We had her birthday party at a nearby park and invited lots of cousins and friends to celebrate with us.

It was a very sticky, humid day, but we had lots of fun!

Little stinker was trying to sneak a cupcake before everyone got there!

We went though almost 6 gallons of lemonade! I did say it was hot out!

I made 72 cupcakes and there were only a handful left!

Mama and the birthday girl:)

Audrey and Owen with a few of their cousins.

She was so ready to blow out those candles we didn't even make it to the end of the song:)

Only part of cake Audrey will eat....the frosting! She gets that from her Daddy!

She received many lovely things from her guests. She loved every single thing!

And she ate almost an entire tube of chap stick!

A Year Ago

This week marks an anniversary.

A year ago Audrey came down with pneumonia. She was rushed to the children's hospital by ambulance. because her chest x-ray didn't look quite right.

We ended up finding out that she had an extreme type of a Hiatal Hernia. Her entire stomach was pushed into her lungs.

You can read about all of it HERE and HERE.

I'm not going to go into it much because most of you remember, and if you don't you can click on the links and read about it.

I'm very thankful this week for God guidance in that trial. I"m very thankful that He was there for us in that time.

I'm even thankful that He allowed her to get the pneumonia, otherwise we would never had known about the hernia until it was much worse and causing much more dangerous problems.

Thank you Jesus for keeping my children and our family in your Hands!

Audrey's Photos

Click on the video below to see Audrey's pictures from yesterday's photo shoot:)

Its too nice outside to be blogging!!!

I'm so sorry I haven't updated anything for almost 2 weeks!!! It has just been too nice out and we've been out enjoying it. I feel guilty every time I walk by the computer knowing that I really should be updating you all on all the happenings around this crazy family ; ) So today, even though the day is gorgeous outside I will do my best to (quickly) inform you all.

The drive down to St. Paul went very smoothly thanks to Heather for borrowing me her GPS ( I will be giving it back to you soon, I promise!) We were there in plenty of time and ended up waiting quite a while in the waiting room for the Dr to get out of surgery. It was a quick appointment and he seemed very optimistic about how things would go and that we would probably only have to stay one night. I was thrilled! I was dreading sitting in a hospital room for 4 long days.

After the appt. we drove around a bit planning on getting some lunch but decided it would be more fun to just go sit in our room and eat sandwiches that I had packed for our long stay. Audrey and I went down to the kiddie pool and she splashed her heart out. She was having a very good day- Mommy all to herself :) We went back to the room and I took some pictures of her little tummy just in case she ended up with some scars after the surgery.

 Daddy came a few hours later and he took us out to Olive Garden for supper. Audrey was more interested in throwing the bread sticks than eating them though. We went back to the hotel and we were all asleep by 9pm.

We were up by 6am on Friday having to be at the hospital by 7:30. The waiting began.

 Poor little girlie was so hungry because she couldn't have anything to eat or drink after midnight the night before. She started to scream and cry and nothing I could do would calm her down. She was both hungry and tired. She fell asleep finally a little after her surgery was scheduled to start but hey were a bit behind and didn't come to get her until 10:30. The surgeon came in a little before the surgery and told us that he hadn't realized when he talked to us the day before that her hernia was as bad as it was. He hadn't looked at her films until that morning and saw that her entire stomach was herniated up above her diaphragm. It was going to be more complicated than he'd thought, they would have to pull the stomach down ,sew the hole shut that it had come through and wrap her stomach around her esophagus. The surgery would probably last about an hour longer than planned. They came and got her, I took her into the operating room and held her until the anesthesia took effect. It was very hard for me to just give her a kiss on the head and walk out that room.

We sat in the waiting room and I prayed and read some verses that my friend had given me before we'd left. I felt everyone's prayers and could feel the Lord with us and knew that He was taking care of our little girl. It took about 2 1/2 hours until they came and got me so I could hold her while she woke up.

( this is how Ben worries! Sleeping! )

The surgeon came in to tell us how things went and that it went well. We were very relieved to have it over with. They moved us to the room she would be staying in and she was groggy and sad for the rest of the day. She slept alot and I held her most of the time.

The next day she was doing much better and we were able to go to the playroom. It was a little annoying though because of her IVs and the alarm for it kept going off. She wasn't eating much and only drinking a little juice. She was throwing up quite a bit because her esophagus was swollen from surgery. Hew tummy was bloated from all the air they had pumped in from the procedure and just from being worked on. They decided to keep her one more day until they could see she was eating more and drinking enough.

(I felt like I was watching the clock just waiting until we could go home!)

 By Sunday she was almost back to her happy self. It was getting harder to keep her in the crib so we went to the playroom a couple times and she was able to get the IVs removed. She was eating a little bit but drinking alot more. We were finally let to leave around 3 that afternoon.

The nurses we had were wonderful. They really made staying there almost enjoyable. They loved Audrey and couldn't get over her 2 toned hair! I actually had a few different people stop us on our way out if I colored her hair! Nope I'm not a crazy person! She just had very unique hair.

( Audrey's "cage" )

Audrey is on a soft diet for 3 weeks. She is not supposed to have anything thicker that mashed potatoes for that long. Its not going well because she hates pureed foods, she usually just spits it all over me. but I've started to just give her the food we are eating in really tiny pieces and she seems to be doing well with that, And she's been eating alot on bread and cheese which makes for delightful diaper changes!

We are so happy that everything went so smoothly. We are so blessed by all our family friends that prayed for Audrey. We are so thankful for our family that took care of our other kids while we were down at the hospital. Thank to everyone who said a prayer. We are so blessed to have you all in our lives!

I have a little girl hanging on my pants now and I'll have to do some more updates later on about what we've been up to. See you soon :)

update

I'm very busy today getting everything ready for Audrey's surgery. We have lots of laundry to finish, packing, and praying to do. I'm having a hard time concentrating on all the things that need to be done today. Worrying has become my constant friend the past couple days.  I KNOW that He is watching over everything that is and will happen. And that He is in control. Every time I start to worry I remember this.

I feel like my head is spinning from everything I need to remember. I hope I don't forget anything at home that we needed to bring with.

The boys made cards and pictures for us to bring with for Audrey. I think they are a little worried about what is going to happen. Clint is probably the most just because he's old enough to know what's really happening. I asked them if they have any questions about what is going to happen and tried to explain without going into detail what is in store for Audrey for the next few days. Clint is most worried about her being in pain. Other than that the boys are really excited about going to stay at Grandma Kay's and Ethan will be staying at his cousin Carter's and going to the zoo with him for his birthday.

I'm so glad Ben will be coming down tomorrow night to be with us in the hotel and there for the surgery. It will be such a comfort to not to have to be there alone.

I'm hoping to bring the laptop with so I can update what is happening and let you all know whats going on. The only thing is the wireless part of the laptop isn't working so I might just have to use one of the hospital that they lend out.

Thank you for all the prayers you have all been sending our way all ready and we covet all the ones you could lift up on our behalf the next few days.

The Party!!!

I am sooooo happy Audrey's party is over. We always have a big party for our kids' first birthdays. I think with just having our immediate families over I get worn out by the time their 1st birthdays are over I don't want to do it again.

We had 72 people here ( including our little bunch)That is just our parents and sibling and their families and our grandparents. Yes, we come from large families. Ben is the oldest of 13 and there are 8 kids in my families. I can't imagine how big our families will be when all our siblings are grown and married with families!

 I was so worried when I woke up that morning that it was going to be raining for the party, and it did rain the whole day. I prayed all day without ceasing that He would stop the rain just in time for our party and was having a hard time trying to decide if we should postpone it or move it somewhere else because there is NO WAY over 70 people could fit in our tiny home. { 20 people would probably be too much!} I decided that we would just have it anyways here and I believed God would take care of it. And so I wasn't too surprised when at exactly 5:00 He brought out the blue sky and the sun shone down on our party. It was perfect and crazy ( it couldn't be anything else with that many people) We had so much fun with our families and enjoyed celebrating out little 1 year old princess.

big cake for a little girl!

I know you have all been going crazy wondering what cake I was going to choose from this post. And I chose number 5. I guess it was meant to be since it was already named the "Audrey Cake". I know it doesn't even come close to how beautiful Amanda's cake was, I had to change a little bit of it because my decorator wasn't working for me very well. But all in all at least the middle turned out and it was edible :)

mmm....tasty

Doesn't look too great on the outside....

.....but its the inside that makes it all come together!

Yes, that's 6 layers...and yes it was alot of work but was so worth it!

Loving the cake

Blake and cousin Brett playing Star Wars/Cowboys??

Auntie Jen, Auntie Stephanie, Auntie Joy, Grandma Jodi, Auntie Rosie

Auntie Jaci, Auntie Jessica, cousin Zander, Grandma Kay, cousin Gianna, cousin Melina, Auntie Christa

Auntie Caroline and cousin Garrett

Great-Grandma Noney and Auntie Jaci

Great Grandmas Maurine and Lavonne

Great Grandpas Walt and Benny

Decisions, decisions.....

Audrey's 1st Birthday is in 8 days! Time has just flown by since our little princess was born. Her party is in 10 days and I'm still trying to come up with a plan! I got the invites out {phew}, trying to get her room finished, and have decided that we don't have a theme. I just couldn't decide. Right now, I'm freaking out about what kind of cake I should make for her. I've been pouring over my favorite baking blog in search of the perfect cake. I'm needing some help narrowing it down though- http://iammommy.typepad.com/i_am_baker/ just does awesome work and I know that I won't be able to even come close to how great her cakes turn out and whatever I decide to do will have to be easy enough that I won't be flipping out at the last minute trying to get it just right. I'm not sure if I can do this or if its illegal but I'm going to link my favorites from her blog so you all can help me decide. So here are the ones that have stood out to me. And after your done helping me you so need to check out the rest of her blog- she does A.MAZ.ING work! I really wish I was her! ( She has an "Audrey" too)

Option #1 This cake is delicate looking and pretty. And the inside has a surprise :)

Option #2 I love how colorful this one is

Option #3 This one is just too cute!

Option #4I know this one is supposed to be for a bridal shower but it is just so girlie and I love it!

Option #5 I think this is my FAVORITE!! And not just because it is actually named "Audrey's Cake" O.K, maybe it does have something to do with my love for this cake! There are a few more on her site that I love too but 5 is probably enough for you to help me decide from. If you see a different one that you see on her site that you love more let me know and I'll check it out! I wish I could order one from her but I guess she's booked through August! She's THAT good!

Audrey

I've been having a blast with my "new" camera. I know that I'm probably not very good yet but it's been really fun trying to figure out all the settings and I"m amazed at how awesome the pictures turn out compared to my point and shoot camera. Here are a few pictures I took of Audrey today.

Audrey in the Mornin'

My little girlie is the smiliest little girl I have ever known.

She smiles pretty much non-stop. Even when she's crying  you can get a smile from her.

She smiles the most in the morning though.

I love her in her jammies so much that many days she wears them all day:) 

These are my favorites right now. What a deal too, only a $1 at Walmart in the clearance.

I love a good deal! But she makes these jammies look good, don't ya think??

They have "cute little monkey" on 'em.

She doesn't sit still for long when I want to take a picture of her so I gotta move fast.

Wouldn't you love to wake up every morning to this little cutie?

I sure do ;)