FUN in the SNOW!

The weather was beautiful today! So Mikayla and I adventured outside to play in the snow. It was cold, but the sun made it bearable. Mikayla was bummed that the snow wasn't good for making a snowman...but she had fun making snow angels instead and I pulled her around on the sled a bit too (just couldn't take photos and pull her at the same time.)

Our little angel!

Family Christmas

Last weekend we went to our Norman family Christmas. WOW! How the families have grown over the years! It was a blast to have all the kids together to play and everyone was amazed at Mikayla's speedy recovery! While Mikayla had a great time opening gifts, seeing Santa from a far and then we bundled up and headed down to see a parade-it was so cool to see the floats all lit up for the holidays!

Santa came to visit-this was about as close as Mikayla would get-but she did go up there and get her gift from him.

Opening gifts! Playing tea party with Rose.
Our crew at the parade!

Gingerbread House fun!

This past Thrsday I took the morning off to spend it with Mikayla. I joined her at her school to decorate gingerbread houses! We had a blast! We were covered in frosting from head to toe, it was a good thing I brought a change of shirt before I had to go back to work. Before we did the houses we decorated a Gingerbread boy.

A bowl full of candy ready to decorate!

Decorating!

The finished product!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Home Sweet Home and doing AWESOME!

Well Mikayla came home from the hospital 2 weeks ago tomorrow. This was one of the first things that she did when she got home...found all her stuffed animals and lined them up for a "show." She is very much back to normal. She is active and is her chatty self again. She is returning to school tomorrow-which was much earlier than we anticipated. The doctors said she is doing remarkably well and her incision looks great for this early! WE are so thankful and know all those prayers are what is making her healing process go so well.
This picture is of Mikayla and Uncle Tim. Mikayla was having fun going around taking everybodies pictures and then her and Uncle Tim took this picture of themselves.

Our family picture that we put our our holiday card! So glad that we are all smiling in it!

We spent tha last week or so slowly getting out our holiday decorations. Mikayla was so excited about it and she loved decorating "her" own tree. Here is the results when she was finished. She has been having fun taking the decorations off and putting them back on too.

FIRST SNOW OF THE SEASON! I think we have a little snow bunny on our hands. She loves the snow. On Friday Mikayla spent the day with Grandma and they went out 2 times to play in the snow and they also built "Issac" the snowman. Mikayla was so proud of her snowman!

POTTY TIME! Well this is the biggest accomplishment from the surgery. As some may know we were not sure that Mikayla had control of her bowel and bladder movements. This was our main reason for contacting the nuerosurgeon to start with. He told us that if she had lost those nerves that she would probably not regain them even with surgery. But we were not really sure if Mikayla knew or not. BUT this week she has been showing signs that she does. She has gone pee on the potty several times. The probably is she isn't telling us we are asking her and then she goes. So we are working on getting her to tell us. But either way she is going and it is a start. Her are a few pictures of her being so proud of herself.

Flushing the toilet! My baby sure is growing up!

A recovery in progress...

Well yesterday was SURGERY! The surgery went great. The doctor was very happy with everything and Mikayla's stats and everything were great during the surgery! However the several hours after surgery were another story. The doctor told us she would have to be sedated for 48 hours to let her back heal and prevent any leakage of spinal fluid. Now for those of you who know Mikayla-she doesn't sit still. When James and I went into the recovery room, she was awake and talking. So that was the start of the craziness. To make a long story short, Mikayla is so strong willed that they couldn't find something to keep her sedated. So after 3 meds, she has finally be successfully sedated all day today. She is on oxygen and is quite congested so we are hoping she doesn't get pnuemonia from all this. She noramlly comes out of sedation surgeries congested from being intubated, but normally she can be up moving around. Well this time she can't so all the congestion is just sitting there. So she is getting regular breathing treatments and we have been switching the sides that she is sleeping on so that the congestions is being moved. We are praying for quick healing and for her to come out of sedation ok once she is able to. Praying for a good night tonight as last night was very rough. Thankfully James has been staying with her-he sleeps through things easier than I do. So I have been sleeping at home. THanks for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. We know this is just another hill to cross and God never gives us more than we can handle...but this has been very tiring and trying. It is so hard to see our baby hurting and calling out fo us and we can't pick her up! I am looking forward to having her in my arms soon! And will never take for granted everyday that she is running around and driving me crazy. I miss her voice and her questions. It has been a long 2 days of sitting in the quiet and dark. We are ready for our little angel to be up and back to her spunky self!

School picture and 3 days until surgery!

Mikayla's school pictures came back and they turned out SUPER cute! She was really nervous and we thought we didn't get a good one because they said she cried. But in the end she did a great job! Kayla loves school and I think that is going to be the hardest part of the upcoming surgery, she won't be going to school for over a month. She is already asking about school and going to school. So we are hoping we have enough tricks up our sleeve to keep her busy, yet allow her to heal correctly.

Well we are in the count down...3 days until surgery. We are getting admitted on Monday around 10 so Mikayla can be put on IV fluids and anitibiotics to prevent infections. Please pray for a safe surgery and a quick recovery. We will be in the hospital anywhere from 5-10 days. Mikayla will be in the ICU for a day or two after surgery and then we will be back on a normal floor. She doesn't really understand what is going on and it is hard for us to explain it. We just hope everything goes well. We will update here and on facebook as soon as we can after surgery. Thanks for keeping up with us!

Fall fun in the leaves!

So we got up early and started tackling our huge piles of leaves. Kayla has been asking to jump in the leaves...but it has been so wet. So we let her today, they were still a little wet, but she had fun! Here are a few pictures from our fun in the leaves!

Buried in the leaves...and waving HI!

Helping dad...push down the leaves so they will fit! It is going to take a few weeks of yard waste to get rid of all our leaves!

Halloween!

We had a wonderful time this Halloween! Mikayla actually understood the concept of dressing up and going trick or treating! Before this year, it was something she did...because we told her to! But this year she was very excited to get in her costume and go trick or treating. She decided to be Minnie Mouse-which was perfect because she already had the costume from her dress up clothes. Minnie all ready to go trick or treating! Sitting by our pumpkins that we never carved!!

Our 2nd stop-our neighbors house, every year we stop at our neighbors house to take the kids pictures together. Our street is a cul-de-sac so we go trick or treating at my mom's house because it is closer to walk to each house, but we always stop by our neighbors house before we go. Cole and Kayla ready for candy!

Helping Grandpa pass out candy. Kayla had more fun passing out candy, then going to get candy.

Eating her first 3 muskteers...she wasn't sure about it at first, but then ate the whole thing and said it was yummy when she was finished.

A FUN FALL WEEKEND!

Ever since Mikayla started school...she has been constantly singing. She will sing everything. On the night of James birthday we set up a stage (her toy box), she dressed up and then put on a concert. Here is one of her songs! We even had a spot light on her (a flashlight) to make it even more star like. I think she might be the next American Idol in a few years!

Here is a picture of Mikayla after we finished decorating a pumpkin for our October family project. She was so proud of her work. We ripped the orange paper and she glued it onto the paper. Then she decided what shapes she wanted on it to make it a jack-o-lantern. Then I helped her cut them out as she needs to work on cutting out shapes. This was the finished product. She is very proud of it.

For the past 3 years we have joined our friends Rachel and Tom at a pumpkin patch/cider mill in St. Johns-just north of Lansing. This year my mom and Brian and our friends Andrea and Pat met us there too. It was a chilly day, but we still had a lot of fun. Here a just a few of the pictures from the day-I didn't do a great job taking picture because it was so cold, my hands were freezing!

Mikayla driving the truck with Grandma!

Picking out her pumpkin!

Riding in the wheelbarrow with our pumkins!

In the pile of pumpkins!

September fun!

WOW! I am sorry no updates. Life is so busy with school! We are getting in the swing of things slowly. I can't believe that we have been back to school for a month now. Mikayla is loving school too. This is a picture of her last week when I got to take her. She is standing by her locker!

We have had a very busy month. Mikayla is now sleeping in a big girl bed.

We also took a trip to Illinois for our nephews 2nd birthday. We stayed at a the hotel that James mom works at and went to the indoor water park. Mikayla loved the water slides once she tried them.

So we have had lots of fun in the month of September. Mikayla is loving school...her class has 10 boys and then her and 1 other girl. She doesn't seem to mind. I am posting a few more pictures of her from the month. We also enjoyed going down to the Art Prize in downtown GR. This weekend we are headed to the pumpkin patch...we are looking forward to it...and hoping for good weather. Down at the Art Prize in front of the GRAM water fall! One of the top ten-the Nessie-on the Grand River! VERY COOL!

Mikayla's family homework for school. She had to decorate a pumpkin! We ripped paper and glued it to the pumpkin.

Back to work tomorrow!

WOW...I can't believe 13 weeks has gone by already-yes this was our longest summer off in years. It has been a wonderful time home and Mikayla and I have had lots of fun spending time together...as much as I love being home all summer-it makes that transition of going back to work very difficult. We have been easing into it for the past few weeks. Mikayla is going to a wonderful childcare provider that I have known since before Mikayla was born. Linette is her name-I had both of her nephews in my preschool class, so she was very excited to have Mikayla as an addition to her home and Mikayla has loved going there the last few weeks. Along with the new childcare provider a few more new things in our lives are:

So as most of you know, Mikayla is going to school this year. She will be going 5 mornings a week to the ECSE (Early Childhood Special Education) program in Wyoming (the district I teach and we live in.) She will recieve speech and physical therapy sessions and it will be so nice for her to be in the school setting. She loves learning and is totally ready to go. I am trying to be super excited for her but it is also hard to believe our baby is going to be in school 5 days a week. She is growing up so quickly! So I will be taking Mikayla to Linette's in the morning and then the bus will come and pick her up at Linette's, she will go to school and then get dropped off back at Linette's. So she will be starting school next Tuesday and she is very excited and looking forward to it!

I feel very blessed to have a job this year and excited that I am still teaching 1st grade. Changes for me this year are that I am at a new school with many new staff members. I am looking forward to meeting all of them and getting to know them. It is hard to be up at the school and not know anyone, but I have been slowly meeting them and everyone seems so welcoming so far. Along with the new school this fall I am also taking a graduate class. This is almost my last one-I have 1 more class after this one and then I will write my thesis and then have my Masters. I am looking forward to having this done...not only for the pay raise, but also to have it done and not have to go to classes in the evening. Thankfully my mom lives so close and is able to help with Mikayla on the nights that James has to work! THANKS MOM!

So tomorrow is the day...we are back at it-bright and early 7:30-nothing like getting us right back into it. So I am leaving you with a few new pics of our night at the Hudsonville fair and our zoo trip today! Enjoy! I hope you like the new background...thought it would get me back in the groove of school!

Hudsonville Fair-Mikayla wouldn't get her face painted, but loved getting her hand painted. She also had fun on the rides...the slide was her favorite!

At the top of the slide!At the bottom of the slide!

Driving her first truck!

Riding DUMBO!Trip to John Ball Zoo with friends-feeding the ducks!

Cowgirl Ellie and Mikayla!