Abigail's First Day of School

Today was Abigail's first day at Lifepointe Christian Academy. It was so hard to leave her, but they took good care of her. These pictures were taken before we left for school in the morning. She started the day off happy and ended the day happy. Benjamin continues to be a FANTASTIC big brother. 'Fantastic' is a word he has been using to describe his days at school.

Beautiful Weather

We enjoyed some time outside this afternoon. The weather was very nice. Abigail really likes being outside...check out her cute Mary Engelbreit outfit!

Benjamin and Abigail
Benjamin was "doing work". He was so excited to wear his "work shirt". He thinks anything that has buttons or has a collar is a work shirt...like Daddy.
Cheese!
What a cutie, all cozy with Daddy!

Birthday Parties!!!

Benjamin went to TWO birthday parties today. The first was for Elise, who turned 3. She had a Princess Party in her backyard. Benjamin wore a Prince's crown. He was the only boy who wore his crown throughout the whole party. The next party was for Macey, who turned 4. She had a Barnyard Party in her backyard. We had a great time!

Benjamin and Elise at her Princess Party

Abigail and Mama. Abigail took a nice little nap at the party. The weather was actually pretty nice...especially in the shade.Benjamin found some friends to play with at Macey's party.

This was so funny...Dan asked if Ben wanted to pet the pony and Ben said, "NO!" as he reached down with a smile to pet the pony.Check out this hair-do!

Look at these cute piglets...boy could they SQUEAL!!!

Benjamin gets up close and personal with a bunny, but he didn't leave Daddy's lap.

Ben takes a break from the animals to draw a picture and decorate it with farm stickers.Ben ventured into the animal pen ALONE...what a brave brave boy!

Aha! Maybe this is why he went in with the animals, to get a hug from his buddy, Kara.Ohhh...so cute!He's actually petting a goat...from the safety of a hay bale.Benjamin and the birthday girl, Macey.

Awww, So Cute!

It's amazing how stable Abigail looks sitting with Benjamin. She is growing so fast! And Benjamin...he's HUGE compared to her! He's so funny. Last night he and Dan were talking at dinner and Dan whispered to Ben, "Hey, ya know where we haven't been in a long time...the donut shop". And they went on to talk about their favorite donuts. Then Ben says, "Hey Daddy, ya know where we haven't been in a long time...the ice cream shop". And they talked about their favorite ice cream. So cute. It's lots of fun to be able to carry on conversations with him. He's so clever!

Quality time with Rosby and the Exersaucer

Rosby continues to get better. She has not had anymore seizures, which is so great. She was showing quite a bit of interest in Abigail today and vice versa.

Photo Shoot

Well, today was my birthday and I had a great day. I spent the day with Abigail. I go back to work on Monday and Abigail starts daycare, so today was a very special day for us. I really feel that she smiled and laughed at me more than usual today, almost like she knew it was our last day together. I know we will spend weekends and holidays together, but I sure will miss staying home from work with her. She's been such a good happy baby and I have so enjoyed our four months together. I know I will be a mess next week, but more than anything I hope that Abigail has fun at daycare. I want her to be safe and loved. Here is a little photo shoot we did this afternoon. This is the outfit that Benjamin picked out just a couple of days after we found out we were going to have a girl. We weren't going to get the hat, but he really felt she was going to need it...so he grabbed it off of the rack and threw it in the basket...it was so funny. And he was right...it is really cute!

Tongue!!!

Abigail has recently been playing a lot with her tongue. She gave some good laughs when Aunt Callie made raspberries at her...I think she liked it so much, she's trying to do it herself!

Grandma and Poppa sent this sleeper...isn't it adorable!!!

She's Movin'!

Well, I once again attempted to lay Abigail down in her crib for a nap (I was successful for her morning nap- but for just an hour). I laid her down in the center of her crib, long-ways...when I went to check on her this is how I found her:

She looked pretty proud of herself! I think she was trying to get closer to her stuffed animals...the purple Snoopy from Grandma and Poppa and the bunny from Gammy.

More Hair

Benjamin has decided to try his newly developed hairstyling skills on his little sister. We think he did a fabulous job! Think he'll still be willing to do her hair when it grows nice and long?

Rosby's Vet Visit

Well, Rosby continues to improve, but the vet feels she has a brain tumor. One of her eyes is dilated more than it should be and Rosby's behavior the past few weeks does not fit an epileptic profile. So, we continue her meds, treat her as normal as possible, and just hope for the best. The vet couldn't tell me how long we could expect to have with her, he said it could be 5 years or 5 days...that's a scary thing...not knowing what to expect. On a positive note, Rosby doesn't appear to be in pain and she seems to be getting better. Also, the staff at the vet clinic is so wonderful. They were so happy to see Rosby looking so much better today and she gave them lots of kisses...almost like saying, 'thank you for taking care of me'. (They tended to her this past Saturday.) One of the technicians showed me a way to massage behind Rosby's ears and over her eyes to help calm her down. She was the one to help stop her seizures on Saturday. We are thankful for the tip. Thanks again for everyone's continuous thoughts and prayers.

Rosby Update

Rosby was doing so much better on Friday/Saturday morning. I had taken her on several walks and she was acting like her old self again. She even played tug with Dan! Well, Saturday morning, we were five minutes into a walk and she had a small seizure. We turned around to go home and she had another one. I called the vet when we got home and she was having "cluster seizures". They told us to bring her in. Dan took her and I stayed home with the kids. She was in bad shape when they got to the vet. It took them a while to stabilize her. The vet rushed a prescription for a new anti-seizure medicine and they hooked Rosby up to give her valium and fluids. That helped to finally stabilize her. The vet was concerned because one of her eyes was not dilating. Needless to say, Dan was extremely upset. Thankfully, Callie volunteered to pick up Ben and take him to her house for the night (Thank you Callie!). Dan, Abigail and I went to pick Rosby up before the vet closed, about 2pm. The vet gave us the low-down on all of the medicines Rosby will be taking and gave us a syringe of valium in case we need to stop cluster seizures. Rosby was vomitting (all over me once!) and just wasn't herself. The vet left the catheter in her arm in case we had to take her to the emergency clinic...so we wouldn't have to pay for them to put one in. Her little leg was wrapped in a neon pink bandage. We brought her home and within an hour she stopped vomitting. We were told to keep her as calm as possible (another reason we were thankful that Ben was at Callie's), so we kept her in her crate. She slept most of the time, except when we let her out to potty and give her her meds. Her face was twitching a lot and she had some more of what the vet calls "bubblegum" seizures. We had a lot of trouble trying to get her to take her meds (7 in the morning and 5 in the evening); I had to shove some of the pills down her throat, poor baby. We just stayed close by (hooked up the baby monitor in our room so we could hear her while in the other room); we missed a visit with Jennifer and Jameson (sorry, guys- we really hoped to see you...glad you got to see Ben). Last night, Rosby had about four seizures that I woke up for throughout the night. I was kind of out of it, but I noticed foam around her mouth after I heard her making noise, so I assumed they were seizures. They were mild, thankfully. Today, we gave her one of her new anti-seizure medicines (which caused her to vomit at the vet-so we gave meds to prevent vomitting before the seizure med) and she did throw up five times about an hour later. Fortunately, it was all within 20 minutes, and then no more for the whole day. Dan stayed home to keep an eye on Rosby while Abigail and I went to Callie's to visit and bring Ben home (boy did we miss him!). Rosby slept for most of the day, but did have a couple of seizures. One of them caused her to almost fall over :(. When we got home, around 4:30, we let her out and she walked around and drank water. She did have another seizure where she lost her balance, but recovered quickly (no cluster seizures).

Good news for tonight (we're grabbing on to all we can)- She ate. She was EXTREMELY messy with her food, but she ate. I only had to shove TWO pills down her throat. She's been out of her crate for awhile tonight and hasn't had any potty accidents. She's given both Dan and I kisses!!! She curled up next to Dan and is sleeping. She laid down with one back leg out...something she's done since she was a puppy, but hasn't done since being so drugged up. She's drinking her water in groups of three slurps (another thing she's done all her life)...slurp, slurp, slurp...pause...slurp, slurp, slurp. I never thought I'd be so happy listening to Rosby drink water. We don't want to get our hopes up, but we are also trying to stay positive. I take her back to the vet tomorrow for a follow-up visit...they will take her catheter out...no more pretty pink tape. I'm sure she will be happy. I will update the blog if there is any new info. I know I am being pretty detailed in my Rosby updates, but I know that our family understands how much we love her and consider her a part of our family. I know you will all want to know how she is doing. Please continue to keep her in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you!

Aunt Callie's/Meeting Aunt Adela

Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle John, and Aunt Adela drove in from Harper, Texas to visit the family and see Callie's new house. Aunt Adela had never met Abigail! Aunt Adela's birthday was September 6th, so we celebrated today.

Abigail and Grandma

Aunt Adela holds Abigail for the first time!

This picture cracks me up...Grandpa is trying to match Abigail's fussy face...he's doing a pretty good job, guess he needs a nap too!
She's a little calmer, now.
Look at the pretty girls!

I know these shoes are too big for Abigail, but I couldn't resist. Jennifer gave them to her and Jennifer, I put them on her yesterday in hopes that you would be able to see them on her in person.

Abigail and Avery It was great, Avery entertained Abigail and Cayden entertained Benjamin. I had it made, I just got to sit down and enjoy watching them play.

You can tell that Aunt Adela got more comfortable holding Abigail by the end of the visit.Time for Birthday Cupcakes! By the way, isn't Avery's new haircut too cute???While no one was looking, Ben snagged a second cupcake, just to eat the icing. Actually, I think Grandma and Grandpa saw him, but kept quiet (I think to win points with Ben!).