Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Abby Turns Three

It's hard to believe our little one is three.  It seems like just yesterday I was at the hospital on the phone with Steve telling him how beautiful our little one was. (For those who may not know, or remember, he was in Afghanistan).

Abby's birth was quite eventful.  The night she was born we were transferred to Memorials NICU because they noticed some red spots on her body and the blood they took from her was clotting too fast.  They put in a red cross note for Steve to fly home from Afghanistan ASAP.  

The next four days were probably the roughest of our lives.  Steve was traveling home, not knowing what was really happening (he had long flights where we couldn't talk) and I was getting news from our doctors, much of that was not good.

Basically it turned out that Abby had a bleed on her brain, it covered 1/8 of her entire brain.  We were told this meant: the areas of her brain that the blood has covered could be damaged and she will have significant delays because of this.  The extent of the delays we will never know until she can't do something.

There are no words to describe what that feels like, I'm crying as I am writing this.  Thank the Lord he put me in a bit of a fog because if I really knew everything, I don't know how I would have coped for those two long days without Steve.

When Steve got there, we were able to process together.  The Lord was with us...that is all I can say.  There is NO WAY we did any of that without Him.

The bleed was on the right side of Abby's brain....Causing her left side to be the "damaged side"


Now we are into year three of Abby's life:
She is an absolute joy.  Often saying/doing things that make us crack up.

She likes to be by herself, an introvert.

Her best friend is Alice. Whenever we go somewhere, "Will Alice be there?"

She can't say "vanilla" :)

She used to say, "What's happeting?"

She loves Lucy unconditionally, even when Lucy tries to take her toys....

It usually takes her at least 45 minutes to wind down when going to bed.

She LOVES crafts

She is doing PT once a week to help with pronation in her feet (turning in).

Her favorite games are: open handed go fish and a bubble puppy's game

She loves Daniel Tiger, Barney and Blues Clues

Being outside is her favorite thing ever, she loves making tracks in the snow.

She doesn't like to do what we want her to do....i.e. come talk on the phone...take a picture for us...Let Lucy sit on your lap....However, if we don't ask to do those things, she will readily do them...She's three.

And...she is left handed...I used to joke with the doctor's, "I think she is going  to be left handed..." just because I thought that was God's way of saying He healed her....Well, He did, and she is indeed left handed....Take that brain bleed!


Here are some pictures from her sweet Blues Clues/Superbowl party:




We have a ruler now so we can measure the girls every year!



We made tickety tock from Blues Clues!







And we played "Pin the Paw on Blue"



And....we watched the Super Bowl....



Pin the paw on Blue





We never get pictures of them both smiling at the same time..


Sweet Clementine Mae.

It was a great party.  We love little Abigail Ann and can't wait to see what God has in store for her.  Her testimony is already pretty amazing!  Can't wait till she is old enough to tell it herself!

Daddy takes Abby out in the snow!









Saturday, January 18, 2014

Thursday, January 16, 2014

LG

Some of you know...

We had a long discussion about Lucy's name...it took us forever to figure out if she should be named Helen or Lucy..

See, Helen is my great grandmother's name.  I'm named after "Gunny" (that's what we called her).  Her name was Helen Carey.  I have fond memories of Gunny...we always had Christmas Eve at her house...Her house was full of crazy contraptions and she was always running around the kitchen cooking....cooking....and more cooking.  I remember her wild curly hair, the crazy amounts of dolls she used for decorating, the "iron" in the basement which was a big roll and ice skating in her back yard.  We have a lot of good memories at "Gunnys" house.  Clearly, naming my daughter after Gunny would make sense.

For some reason we went with Lucy.  We like the name, it's perfect for her.  We call her LG, Lucy Grace, Lucy Gracie, and a new nickname was formed this Christmas: Lulu.

Sweet Kate, my niece (her middle name is Elizabeth, so is mine...we have a special bond), started calling Lucy, Lulu.  It stuck.  We love Lulu.

Now, let's go back a year or so...When we were deciding on what to name Lucy, I asked my mom what Gunny's middle name was....she didn't know and asked her sister.  Laurel (my mom's sister) said she asked Gunny once and Gunny said, "I never had a middle name, but if I did, I would make it my favorite name...."  You want to know what that name was???  It was Lulu.  Yeah, I'm not joking.   God is pretty awesome isn't He?  When I look at my Lulu, I see Gunny, and my Lord, smiling at me.  It's pretty awesome how He speaks.


Gunny and I one Christmas Eve....


Lucy and I this year on Christmas Eve (the best picture of just the two of us...)


I love this little one and the constant reminder of how awesome God is every time I say her name....






Saturday, December 28, 2013

Up North

Northern Michigan is great....

Steve and Russ made a super fort for the kids....all the kids could fit in it with room to spare.  

We went sledding on an awesome hill....Kate is somewhere under the snow blow.




And then....after the fort....we made a snowman...a no joke snowman.

Kate kate.

(notice the shadow UNDER the sled....)

Abby's favorite thing to do outside is eat snow.


Jim jams and LG

Cousin sleepover....Only took two nights for it to work.


Today we didn't give Abby a nap to try to make her fall asleep faster at night...We found her like this.


Lake Leelanau is the best.

Christmas with the Kacin's

We got to spend Christmas Eve with the Kacin's.  It was so fun...So many kids!  


For Nana's bday we got her some matching photos from her favorite photographer Ken Scott.



These kids...

(she is not picking her nose...)


 My cousins....They are elves....the best.

Look at how cute this family is!

I guess we are cute too....minus the upset kid.



First Christmas!!!


I mean....look at this kid.