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.