To the Moon and Back....

A little over a week ago now, the girls and I made a trip to the mall to hunt for a birthday present for Terry.  Looking back, this is probably where we picked up that nasty flu bug, but whatever.  After getting our shopping done, and having some Chick-Fil-A for dinner the girls wanted to play in the play area. 

 

Addison was obsessed with playing with this "rocket ship".  She kept saying she was going to the moon and back!  I honestly feel that this miracle from God is destined to do great things.  She may one day actually go the moon and back!!

 

Alexis said it was an airplane, not a rocket ship.  She took her turn "flying" the plane. 

 

Regardless, of whether it was a plane or a rocket ship.....This Momma loves both of you "to the moon and back"!!!

 

Sick....

Please excuse my blogging absence.  The plague has hit our house HARD!!  Like to the point where I thought my life was flashing before my eyes.  OK, that may seem a little dramatic, but seriously as I slept on my bathroom floor the other night, I wasn't sure I would survive.

It all started with this little one:

Alexis got it first. She started Friday afternoon.  I will spare you the disgusting details!  She was the quickest to bounce back.  Waking up Saturday, basically like nothing ever happened.

 

Then Saturday night, or should I say Sunday morning around 1:00A.M. Addison started getting sick.  Poor thing was vomiting in her sleep and was up just about every thirty minutes.  It got to the point where we just lined her bed with bath towels.  She took it really hard!  Poor thing was barely able to move for a couple of days.

 

She could barely muster up enough energy to walk up the stairs most days.  I know she was tired of me forcing fluids down her throat, but I wanted to keep her hydrated.  Things were coming out faster than they were going in.  Sorry, Gross I know!

 

Then Terry got it.  At first I just thought he was being a whiney baby, but after going through it myself, I completely understand.  It hit me while driving home from work Monday evening.  I had to pull over twice.  A police officer pulled up next to me the second time and asked me if I had been drinking. My response, "I wish, I probably would feel better".  After that, he basically left me alone and followed me home. 

 

We are all hoping that this plague gets out of our house soon.  Honestly, I have had the flu many times in my life, but this was probably the worst. 

NICU Reunion 2013...

This past Saturday we attended our fifth NICU reunion.  Even after five years, all those emotions come flooding back.  While it's so incredible to re-connect with all the fabulous nurses and doctors who took care of our kiddos....it also brings back a lot of feelings and emotions that we keep tucked away. 

 

This is such an incredible event with over three thousand people in attendance this year.  We even made it on the local news.  Once I find the link, I will be sure to post it.

 

We ran into one of our doctors while at the party.  She amazes me every year how she remembers our story exactly.  She remembers the girls bed numbers in the NICU.  She remembers diagnoses.  And she always brings me to tears, happy and grateful tears that is!  When the doc told me that she never expected Addison to make it out of the NICU alive I about lost it.  It was almost as if I was reliving that moment when she told us about her brain bleeding all over again.  We are so very fortunate and so incredibly blessed to have had so many answered prayers.

 

 

 

As always, we ride the ponies first thing before the line gets too long.  Addison top, with her pony "Levi" and Alexis bottom, with her pony "Sassy".  Alexis was so excited to ride the little horse.  It was also slightly ironic that her horses name was Sassy, because we are constantly telling her how sassy she is!  :-)

 

A few of the games, the girls loved the ring toss game.

 

The also loved trying to ring the bell on this giraffe game.  Needless to say, neither one of my tiny girls were strong enough to ring it.

 

And the ever popular, duck pond....or play in the water game as Alexis called it!

 

The infamous train.

 

One of our beautiful night nurses, Karrie.  She is responsible for taking the very first photos I have of my girls.  I have several beautiful scrapbook pages that she made for us.

 

My favorite night nurse Lisa.  There aren't enough words to describe this beautiful woman.  She took care of me just as much as she took care of the girls during our NICU days.  I only slept well on nights when I knew Lisa was watching over my girls.         I hate that Addison was being a grouch in this photo.

 

The girls loved the see-saw.  They probably would of played on this all day.

 

Liz, our favorite day nurse.  Again, no words to describe how amazing this woman is.  She was one of the few people who could make me smile during those 3 1/2 months.  I will never forget the day that Liz convinced the doctors to let me hold my girls.  She knew I was having a rough time and that was exactly what I needed!

 

The girls love fire engines!  I think Alexis just likes to flirt with the firemen!!

 

And Sparky the fire dog!  They were in love with him!!

 

As I say every year......This event is an amazing display of God's handiwork!!!  My girls are walking, talking, living proof that God works in amazing ways!!!

State Fair Part two!

 

As promised here are the remaining photos from our State Fair visit...

 

 

 

Not sure when my girls got so big.  They loved riding the roller coaster.

 

They loved the bumble bee ride.

 

This photo of Addison is another one of my favs.  Those smiles made every penny we spent worth it.  (For those of you who have been, you know the fair is NOT cheap!!!)  I wouldn't trade these memories for anything!!

 

 

The girls also liked this dino ride.  They were giggling and waving everytime it came back around our way!  I wish I could bottle those giggles!!

 

Addison was pretty adamant about getting onto the blue pony.  Alexis just wanted a pony that had a flower on it.

 

Another "poke your head through board" (as the girls called them).  Alexis loves scooby-doo!

 

I'm not sure why, but this one made me have one of those "moments".  Seeing the three holes made me a little sad.  Remembering that we should be taking three kiddos to the fair, not two.  But it also made me thankful for my two beautiful, healthy little girls.  We saw too many handicapped children at the fair.  Despite my sadness for the baby we lost, I felt very fortunate for my healthy, four year old princesses!!

 

This year they added a special kiddie land ride area.  The girls were still about 2 inches too short to ride a lot of the rides but they didn't care all that much.

 

The girls were too short to go down the slide by themselves.  The above two pics are horrible photos of me, but you can see how much fun Addison is having in her smile.  Terry told me he could here her squeal as we were coming down.  Another one of those memories from the fair that I won't soon forget! 

 

Alexis didn't love the slide as much.  She didn't hate it, but she was just bummed that she couldn't go by herself.  She just kept saying "but I'm a big girl".  Sorry sweetie, you still need to grow a few more inches.

 

Alexis didn't love the boat so much.  She said it was a baby ride.

 

If you ask the girls what their favorite ride is, the will say the dizzy dragon (pictured above).  We were able to spin the dragon around ourselves.  I seriously wish I could of video taped the laughter from all three of us while riding. 

 

We opted to ride the tractor/tram back to our car.  The girls were starting to melt down and walking the distance we needed to travel just wasn't feasible.  Alexis layed down and almost instantly fell asleep.

 

The car ride home proved that they had so much fun that they wore themselves out. 

 

Definitely one of those days that I will never forget!!

State Fair Part One.....

 

This past Monday, August 19th, 2013, I decided to take the day off and take the girls to the Indiana State Fair.  It was one of those perfect days that we just didn't want to end.

 

We got to the fair shortly after 11:00a.m. and spent the majority of the day there.  I think we didn't get back home until close to 7:00p.m.  The girls had an absolute blast!  I can still hear their little squeals of excitement.  Those squeals and all the smiles were worth every penny we spent!!

 

We took 117 pictures while at the fair.  I've spent the last few days weeding out my favorites.  Due to the amount of photos I want to share, I'm going to have to break this up into two posts.

 

The girls thought these "poke your head into" boards were so much fun!!

 

I don't even want to think about graduation yet! 

 

They LOVED all the animals!!

 

They loved playing on all the tractors.

 

Both girls thought that this sheep was hysterical!  Addison kept saying that it was pretending to be a zebra.  She also was adamant that we send a photo of this sheep to Aunt Sandy (who loves zebra print anything!).

 

Addison loved these little piggies.  She almost cried when we told her we had to move on.  She thought their little grunts and noises were funny.

 

One of my favs from the day.....This photo is currently on the ISF facebook page.  The girls seriously LOVED their corndogs!!  (So did Momma!!)

 

LOVE!

Visiting the world's largest popcorn ball.  They broke the world record with this 6,510 pound ball.  The girls were less than impressed. 

 



 

Alexis wants us to grow gigantic watermelons in our backyard now.  This one was over 150 pounds.

 

And both kiddos thought this pumpkin display was funny.  Addison asked if we could do this to our pumpkins at halloween time.   Umm....Momma doesn't have that kind of talent baby girl!!!

These can food displays were incredible.  Even the girls were impressed.

 

Terry liked the Homer display.

 

I was told that this QR code actually worked if you scanned it. 

 

 

Stay tuned for part two tomorrow....The best photos are yet to come!!!