Shopping....

Over the last few months, many of the appliances in our house have begun to crap out.  Most recently, our refrigerator has been failing to perform up to par.  I've known this for awhile and haven't done much about it.  This past weekend we decided we needed to purchase a new fridge before we were left without one.  This involved a trip to Sears in our local mall.  The girls were super excited.  They know the mall has a fun play area and lots of rides.  After selecting our new fridge we let the girls loose in the play area......

(sorry for the quality....all pictures in this blog post were taken from my phone)

I typically don't give in to letting the girls play on rides when we go to the store, but in this case, they had been so well behaved in the store we decided they deserved a treat.

Alexis really wasn't so sure about the horse.

Addison wanted to take the horse home with us. 

Loved the Mickey car.

The girls loved this race car until Terry turned it on. 

It was moving and shaking and they were not having any part of that.

Addison couldn't get enough of Mickey.  She kept saying "hug Mickey, hug Mickey".

So in two weeks, we will have a brand spanking new, top 'o the line refrigerator.  Fingers crossed that our existing fridge doesn't totally crap out before then.

Labor Day Weekend 2011.....

This weekend we did a lot of just "hanging out" around the house...

But we did have a fun visit from Grandma and Grandpa.  The weather was rather so random this weekend.  Saturday it was 102 degrees outside.  Then a cold front came through and Sunday and Monday it was barely 65 degrees.  We did take advantage of the cooler weather and made a trip to the zoo.  It was so strange to have to put jackets on the girls when just a few days prior it was so miserably hot.

I SOOOO wish that I would of had the video camera readily accessible when we made our first stop.  We were in an outside area that was surrounded by large glass windows.  A few people were gathered around the windows so we went to check it out.  There was a large tiger just pacing back and forth in front of the windows.  Addison walked right up to the window and yelled "WOW, A TIGER!".  It was one of those things you had to actually see to understand how excited she was.  Alexis kept saying "hold you tiger, hold you tiger", which means she wanted to hold and pet the tiger.  I love experiencing the zoo through the eyes of two, two year olds.  Watching them enjoy seeing new animals is so priceless.

Once the girls saw the train, we knew that there was no way we were going to escape without taking a ride.  Here are a few pictures of the train ride and our day at the zoo:

Grandpa and Alexis on the train.

Addison and Me in front,

Grandma, Grandpa and Alexis in back.

Me and Little Miss Sunshine.

Addison in the big snake.

Alexis wanted to pet the snake.

Playing in the big snake.

Addison wanted to touch everything.

Watching the dolphins.

Lex looking at the polar bear.

Watching the fishies.

Love that Alexis gets so excited.  She kept pointing at everything. 

More fish watching.

Petting the sharks.

  This was really neat. I think the girls were just excited to be playing in water.  I don't think Alexis actually got to touch a shark.  One came right by us, and when Alexis reached out to grab it, I freaked out and pulled her back.  My protective insticts kicked in a little too strongly.

Grandma and Grandpa with Addison.  Grandma got yelled at for holding onto the shark's fin for too long. 

More shark petting.

Over all a great weekend!  So glad the cooler weather is back, but not looking forward to the project of pulling out and washing all the fall/winter clothes for the girls. 

You decide....

When coffee creamer cups become building blocks.....

Does this mean Mommy drinks too much coffee???

Or does this mean Mommy is using creamer cups as a diversionary tactic to keep two little busy bodies occupied until the food comes????  You decide!!

NICU Reunion 2011...

 You may remember reading my previous posts about our family attending the annual St. Vincent Women's Hospital NICU reunion. 

(If not they can be found here.... 2009 reunion and 2010 reunion)

This is definitely an annual tradition in our home.  It truly is incredible to celebrate so many miracles in one location.  God's handywork was definitely on display all morning.

It's surreal to me to go back and look at how much the girls have changed in the past two years.

It was so great to see all the doctors and nurses who took such great care of our kiddos.  An eternal gratitude is not even close to explaining how we feel about each and everyone who cared for our precious girls like they were their own.

Here are a few pictures...

Addison on her pony.  The pony's name was Sunshine.  She kept repeatedly asking for Sunshine the remainder of the day.

Addison

Alexis not quite so sure. 

After dismounting her horse...Alexis kept saying "sit on, sit on".  She wanted to keep sititng on the horse.

No fear this child....I think we came close to losing a few fingers.  She was so eager to pet the mini-pony.

Alexis was mesmerized with the pony that was her size.

The girls also spent a few minutes attacking a bunny.

Of course the famous train ride where the parents have to squeeze into a car way to small. Alexis was so intense with the steering wheel.

Addison ready to roll.

Two of the most amazing nurses ever.  Carrie on the left holding Alexis and Liz on the right holding Addison.  Liz was our primary day nurse.

The duck pond. 

Addison just couldn't choose.  She told Terry... "I take all duckies".

Addison gave the Fire Pup a big hug.  Alexis was petrified of him.

One of the most amazing woman ever, and our girls.  Lisa was our primary night nurse and is still a huge means of support to our family. 

Dr. DeSanto, Nurse Lisa and our girls.

Dr DeSanto was one of our primary doctors in the NICU.  You may remember this post (click here to read) that my Mom wrote a few years ago.  Dr. DeSanto was the one who told us about the initial findings of Addison's brain bleed.  She was also the doctor who told us that Addison would probably never walk or use the left side of her body.

When we ran into Dr. DeSanto she imediately remembered our case.  She quickly asked how things were going and if the girls have any residual preemie issues.  She told us that having to give us that bad news was one of the worst days of her career.  She said she remembers it like it was yesterday.  She continued to tell us that God is the only explanation because what she saw in those test results just doesn't go away.  Good thing I had my sunglasses on because the tears were flowing out of my eyes.

The girls can't pass by a slide without giving it a try.  Addison was having a blast.

Alexis wouldn't get off the slide.  This girl can spot a playground a mile away.

Both girls loved these quack quacks. 

This always is such an amazing event designed to recognize the strength and accomplishements of former patients of the NICU and allows all families to reconnect with other NICU families and the staff members who cared for their children.

As always, it was great to see all our doctors and nurses again.  It really does take a special type of person to be a NICU employee

State Fair....

I'm sure by now you have all seen the below video of the tragedy at our local state fair.

http://www.theindychannel.com/video/28859295/index.html

After attempting to go to the zoo on Monday, only to find that they had closed early, I was a little leery of heading to the fair instead.  I had the girls all pumped up to see animals so we had to find some form of backup plan to appease their requests to see some animals.

Terry quickly suggested that we go to the fair.  After the horror stories that I had been seeing and hearing on the news, I was a little nervous about going.  I'm not sure why, but I just didn't want to go.  The girls were in the back of the car begging to see animals so I agreed. 

I'm not really sure how it happened, but Terry and I ended up being ushered into the park grounds and directed into a media parking area.  No joke, we parked next to at least 75 television news vans from all over the country doing stories about the tragedy that had happened a mere two days before.  There was a very quiet calmness that lurked around the area where the stage once was.  I wish I could find the words to describe how creepy that feeling was.

They had this area roped off but we were still able to get strangely close to it.  I'm convinced that since we somehow parked in the media area, we weren't really supposed to be where we were. 

Immediately tears welled up in my eyes.  I wanted to go to this concert, but because of our trip to Chicago I didn't.  My heart was (and still is) aching for all the families that lost loved ones or had a family member or friend injured in this horrific fluke accident caused by mother nature.  I felt the strange need to kiss my kids and give Terry a ginormous hug.  There really are no words to explain it.  I even caught Terry with a small tear running down his cheek.

*********************

Any who... The girls had a fantastic time walking around all the animal barns.  We saw the worlds largest and second largest pig.  Addison's words explain it perfectly, she pointed and yelled...

"BIG FAT PIG".  The pig's bodyguard actually burst out laughing.  Yes, the pig does have a body guard!  Weird I know!

One of my absolute favorite things at the fair is corn.  I don't know why... but a big fat ear of corn, soaked in butter is so much better at the fair than it is at home.  Once we left the swine barn, we ran into a booth that was selling corn.  Terry and I both got an ear.  Alexis immediately started yelling, "bite, bite bite".  I didn't figure they would like it since they have never really eaten corn well at home.  Needless to say we ended up going back to the booth and buying two more ears of corn.  They girls also enjoyed pigging out on other fair food such as corn dogs, french fries, funnel cakes and ice cream.

Sadly I had forgotten my camera at home and my cell phone battery was getting low so I was only able to capture a few pictures. 

When we were leaving the fair we were once again reminded of the horrific events that had happened just a few days prior.  Our prayers continue to go out to all the victims of the tragedy at the fair.