Danielle Marie Holub 6/27/2008 1lb 11 ounces 13.5 inches long

New Year for New Things!

2012-01-22T21:14:00.000-06:00

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
What a beautiful little girl you are
Growing up before our eyes
With Spirit and Courage that never sighs.

You have the will to do anything you can

Try this, try that, YES I WILL &
YES I CAN!!!

We love your little giggles & eyes so wide
Sweetie you give Mom & Dad a big sense of pride!
You hear your family & you're cranking your head to see
after a hello kiss your happy as a little bee who just found honey.

This year's going to be very exciting for you
We've started getting you ready because
just like your brother, soon, you're going to be in school too!

Where oh where does the time go,
this Mommy can't figure it out
but it doesn't matter
because we're reaching goals,
trying new things & you are so happy....
a big, warm, reassuring smile, is all I'm after.

Your courage is amazing, your body so strong
each week brings something new because
your flying thru everything we ask of you!

Keep being you, little girl so sweet
play time, bath time, therapy time, bonding time
no matter with what we fill the days,
we thank the lord, for you sweetie,
are our blessing in many ways.

Favorite Things...

2011-08-30T21:20:00.000-05:00

These are a few of Danielle's favorite things!

Swinging....

Each new week at therapy brings something new for Danielle to play. A new choice to make, a new activity to play and each week she stuns us with her ability to fully comprehend what task/choice her therapists are giving her. It is truly amazing!

She loves to paint pictures...we start by choosing a color...

And then we dip the brush...

And then we paint a masterpiece!

And display it on the fridge!

She loves to color pretty pictures...We help hold her hand up and she moves it wherever she wants it to go!

She LOVES to play dress up with pretty jewelery! Last week they gave her the choice of 4 different colors of jewelery to choose from. They wanted to see if she would color coordinate, she picked purple all 4 times! Today she picked pink all 4 times. She is very smart & quite the princess, complete with the crown!

Danielle loves to go down the slide and even stays sitting upright like a big girl. At the bottom she pushes the button that says, 'more slide please'!

Danielle loves to crawl up and down the wedge to her musical caterpillar...

And what could be more fun than a bubble machine!!! She sits and pushes the yellow button to make it go and releases her hand to make them stop!

All done bubbles! But I love sitting on my own like a big girl!!!

She loves to touch and feel objects...here she is playing with shaving cream to make some art!

It is messy but sure is a TON of fun and it feels really funny too!

She is beginning to self feed. She loves to put the special spoon in her mouth and taste yummy flavors of food. It's kinda messy but fun to self feed like a big girl!

And there is NO doubt that Danielle's most favorite activity is playing with her baby. She loves to wash the baby and give the baby a bath...

And crawl to the baby....

and to get the baby all dressed and feed her when she is done. Danielle LOVES her baby!

Over the past 2 ish months we have learned so much more about Danielle's learning ability and her most favorite things to do and pretend play. She fully and I mean fully understands what you ask of her, shaking her head yes and no to agree or disagree and pointing to what she wants to do. Yesterday she was walking the halls at Witwer in her walker and delivering cookies to the other therapists, it was the cutest thing ever!!! She more or less stopped walking after a bit and was more concerned about picking up cookies and handing them out than she was walking. She is very much a little girly girl and we love this more than ever! We are so blessed with 3 of the most fantastic therapists who help us and challenge our little girl. She gets a little bit sassy with them when they ask her if she wants to do things they know she doesn't like....for example playing with cars, every week they purposly ask Danielle if she wants to play with cars, and every week she shakes her head, no no NO! Every single week we learn something new about our daughter and her will to fight and learn and show us that she knows what she is doing, even tho she may not communicate much with her mouth, she shows us with her eyes, hands and head movements. We are having so much fun with her and could not be more proud! We love you punkin!~

Growing Stronger!

2011-05-29T09:43:00.001-05:00

Happy Spring and almost Summer! We have been enjoying these warmer days, seeing fresh green grass and leaves everywhere and beautiful flowers blooming! Just as nature grows stronger this time of the year, Danielle is growing stronger as well!

We continue therapy anywhere from 2-4 days a week depending on the week and Danielle is doing great. They have some new 'switch' toys that Danielle just loves and this is one of them. It is so much fun watching her control the switch fully knowing when to start and when to stop.

Her most favorite OT Lisa is holding her and Andrea is her Speech Therapist!

I love getting surprise visits at work from the kiddo's!

Our swing set use is in full force now! It is wonderful to come home and have some swing time after a long hard day. Some fresh air we all enjoy!

We constantly giggle whether it may be nice or not, sometimes it breaks my heart, at how so very ultra sensitive Danielle. is. She is getting a lot better about not startling at so many noises, but her feelings get hurt rather easily. She still knows how to maneuver herself over to Dylan's toys and every now and then that causes a little bit of a sibling battle. He will take something away from her and the lip will pucker until she gets the toy back. If we feed into her pucker lip then it turns into a full fledged cry, if we sit back and let it casually go away, then she turns that frown upside down in a matter of minutes! That little 2 1/2 year old attitude is in there and I know it's hard to believe but we do see it come out occasionally of this super sweet girl!

Danielle's therapy sessions are full of 100% fun play time. While Danielle is really pushed to work very hard it is all in good, fun activity time. We have been working more on vision strengthening recently during co-treats. It had been a long time since vision therapy was regular in our weekly therapy. With her not being as strong looking to the left recently, they have been working it back in. Within a matter of days already her vision has strengthened right back up.

This is a co-treat with Lisa our OT, Barb our PT and then a student in training who is following with Lisa and a couple other therapists for 12 weeks. Danielle is a great learning tool for him.

Crawling towards the lights is so much fun!

Big girl crawling all on her own! So much fun to see!

While we still use the walker and continue to love watching her in it, we have recently been trying her on the treadmill. It is more of a workout for her, forcing her to stay upright and to have her legs continuously moving. She does get tired of holding her head up easily after a few steps because she is not able to support herself like she does in the walker, on the treadmill she is holding up her body weight all on her own, which is very exciting! She is continuing to do very, very well. Stationed in front of the treadmill is a mirror that she loves to look in while walking. Big girl loving to see herself in motion, we love it too!

Nutrition is still high on the list of important daily items for Danielle. We have found this wonderful food that she LOVES! It comes in so many varieties and is the perfect 'applesauce' like consistency that Danielle does very well with. The best thing is that it does not contain any water additive and every single bite is 100% Organic Nutrition! The combinations are awesome and full of not only fruit and veggies but fruit and veggie combinations! Yummy! We still puree some of our own foods that are more chunky for her to get use to chewing, but these pouches have been a wonderful addition to Danielle's diet, especially at daycare!

The Ella's Kitchen brand is her very favorite. And her most favorite that is not pictured here is Carrots, Pumpkin and Parsnips! It actually smells a little like cinnamon, yummy!

Neither Brad nor I can never deny our munchkins some snuggle time and Danielle is ALWAYS up for it! Recently I have not been able to have only one kiddo on my lap but they both must be there. If I am sitting with Dylan on the couch and I am within an eye sight of Danielle, the lip comes out and she wants to be included. And if I am snuggling up with her, in a matter of minutes Dylan finds himself coming up to join in. One of the best parts of being a mommy, being able to cuddle, soothe and comfort any time of day!

And in just under a month this little bright eyed beauty will Celebrate her 3rd Birthday! Where in the world has time gone?! A pause button would be very nice every now and then ;)

Checkin' In....

2011-02-23T18:53:00.020-06:00

Danielle is off to a great start for the New Year. We have been hibernating with hopes of staying healthy because there are a pile of germs and sickness going around right now. She is battling a bit of a cough right now, but after a couple trips to the doctor, just a virus her blood counts say. We have ventured out for walks when the weather has been warm and we have been teased with small tastes of Spring, but other days we have been relaxing and snuggling up!

We have struggled with ouchy ears tho for the past month or so. Danielle is such a tough cookie that she doesn't fuss much when her ears are ouchy but we notice by certain symptoms and can't help but know that they must be bothering. We have done ear drops on and off since the end of December / beginning of January. Drops we got from her Odo doc in IC, use them if you feel she is in discomfort, if they don't do the trick then take her in. Well they were working, we would do them for 5 days, ears would clear up so we would stop, sure enough 4 days later the ear icky's would be back. So Mom finally had enough. After a visit into her local Ped doc they suggested once again to do the drops and we would revisit the situation in 2 weeks. No way that is what we had already been doing!

So two Sunday's ago I e-mailed her most fabulous doc in IC, Dr. Smith. Fully not expecting a response until Monday, I still wanted to type while it was fresh in my mind. Low and behold by 4pm I had a response and he wanted to see Danielle the very next day. We got in Monday afternoon and the results made us sad. Her left ear that still had the tube was clogged badly with ear gunk and the tube was so surrounded that it was not functioning. My Aunt sat with us while Daddy and the nurse held Danielle and Dr. Smith suctioned what seemed like a huge amount of stuff out of the way back of her ear, but it wasn't enough. She screamed and cried, it was so sad but we knew that it had to be done :( The tube was also surrounded with granulated tissue and a lot of gunk, so the drops I had been doing had probably not even been getting to the spot. He scheduled tubes the very next day.

Keeping a watchful eye on her nurses and doctors before surgery.

Sound asleep on the Boppy during play time :)

It was a long beginning to the week but we got thru it and anything to help our baby girl get on the mend. We awoke Tuesday morning and at 6am headed off to IC. Surgery was to be at 9am but by 8:30 they were ready for her. We had been thru this routine before but it doesn't make the situation any easier on Mom or Dad. We both looked at each other with big sad eyes as the Anesthesiologist carried Danielle off to the OR and we took a right turn to the waiting room. 15 minutes later Dr. Smith came in, surgery went good. Her left ear was to be pretty ouchy for a few days, he had a hard time getting the tube out but he did and got the ear cleaned out and new tubes places in each ear. Great news! Thank you Dr. Smith!
We were home by 11am and on the couch snuggling with our baby girl. The next day Daddy stayed home and cuddled her some more to make sure she was feeling okay. Her ears were pretty sore for about 4 days, now we think they are a lot better. Instantly she started holding her head up a LOT better and she is talking even more. What a great thing! And the most comforting thing is having a doctor we love, as we left that day Dr. Smith says to us, 'thank you for letting me help your daughter.' Those words I have heard from him before but they get me every time. It is amazing to have someone so special caring for our children.

One of the reasons we are so very fortunate to have incredible Specialists so close to us at the University! We will be forever grateful to them for saving our children!

Today we ventured back to IC for her 6 month MRI and re-check with our Neurosurgeon. Danielle did great! We even got a visit from the Continuity of Care person for the NICU, Anne, who wanted to followup and see Danielle! That was a great surprise!

The MRI was the usual, quick 5 minute one, she fussed a little bit but I held her hands the whole time. They did the series 3 times to ensure we got more than one good picture. Before long we headed up to the clinic.

The doctor was pleased with this visit. Nothing had really changed since last time which is good news. Her setting is set to drain the most that it can. He is happy with how things are and we got the okay to not come back for another 6 months! We talked about Danielle's therapy and how vital it is for her to keep continuing weekly therapy sessions to help her get stronger, keep her body loose and her mind growing to explore new things! And the best therapy Dr. Menezes said, even better than the therapy she gets at her sessions.....her big brother! He is vital to her, getting her to want to interact, watch him from across the room and hear his language, all of those things continue to be extremely important. We have talked about all of these things before but he just reconfirmed that we are doing a great job at doing what we can for our daughter. We got his blessing to continue on for the next 6 months!

So our pace continues, slow and steady. We don't have to venture back to the U until June when Danielle will have her 1 year re-check for her eyes. It seems a little crazy to think that we hopefully won't even have to see Neurosurgery until August which will be the end of summer! It seems so close, yet so far away!

We continue to be blessed with our baby girl. We are blessed with the team of professionals in our life that help us help her in every way possible. We are thankful for such a wonderful place within a short drive, a place that we owe much gratitude in the health of our children. We look forward to seeing Danielle grow and get even stronger over these next months, so we can show off her and her new tricks on our next visit! This week we are meeting with our team to talk about pre-school for Danielle. She can't possibly be growing up that fast....well yes she is! We are looking forward to exploring the opportunity's that are available and choosing what is best for our baby girl. ~

My Wish for you....

2011-01-02T19:22:00.011-06:00

Happy New Year sweet baby girl! What an amazing 2010 you had.....but we know that Twenty Eleven is going to be even better!

We are SO extremely proud of you and your ambition. You never give up, you fight for everything you want and every move you make. Your mind is going faster than many even know, but we know sweetie! You are starting to communicate so much, nodding 'yes', shaking your head 'no', communicating with your eyes, signing to us and your first precious words, 'hi' and 'mama'.

We truly believe that we have found some of the best people to help you get stronger, and get to where you want to be. A full year with those amazing people is going to help you grow in strides sweetie and we are right along with you for the ride! Now that we have your very own walker at home it is amazing how much you show us your strength every single day. Now to just get that Benik in and we will be set, set, set!
Never give up sweetie. Never forget how much we love you and believe in you! You are our precious daughter, heaven sent and we are SO lucky to be your Mom & Dad!

Here is to you darling and a great 2011 full of new adventures....cheers & smooches!~

Moving right along...

2010-11-14T19:58:00.012-06:00

Danielle has been a busy little girl these past few months! We are now up to having therapy 4 days per week. Every week we see Danielle do something new....and let me tell you, as a parent, there is no better feeling in the world!
November is Premature Awareness Month. All month long I follow different prayer chains and blogs brought to me by the March of Dimes and the Children's Miracle Network. Recently we were asked by the University to be a Children's Miracle Network family for UIHC and to share our story for Dance Marathon 2011. We were very excited and honored. We filled out the sheets and sent in our family's story. We will see what they come back with to us and how we can help this great event in 2011.

It really is such a time in our life that we don't forget, yet, do like to try and put behind in our memory. But still to this day, as a parent of a preemie I really do feel like the NICU was such a huge part of our life and our children's lives, that is where they started and regardless of the situational experiences that the NICU brought to us....we do really owe them gratitude for saving our children so they could be with us today. So this month we are raising awareness for Preemie babies and thanking all of the doctors and nurses who fight every day to save these precious little ones...our little ones.

We have started Speech therapy and I will have some video and pictures to come soon! This is new and we are so excited to see Danielle progress in the area of speech. She only says a few words now on a continual basis and in context, which is awesome! 'Hi' and 'Mama' she says regularly and we are so excited for speech to help her vocabulary and pronunciation grow.
We also have started a new type of therapy called Vital Stim. Have I told you about our most fabulous OT?! She is a gift to our little girl. I mean, we really strongly believe that she was brought into our life for a reason. She started working with Danielle on Visual Therapy just about a year ago, and this has been the most fantastic year ever since we met Lisa. I started asking Lisa about feeding techniques for Danielle when I found out that she also helps kids with feeding. She loves to eat her baby food and for the most part does not have an issue eating, but in talking with Lisa we decided to try this new Vital Stim for a couple of reasons. One being that it will increase Danielle's swallow, she has a fairly 'soft' swallow right now and increasing the thickness of food to ex. table food, would be challenging with such a soft swallow. So we are working on making those tongue muscles stronger to really strengthen her swallow, make it more quiet and help her to control the food that is in her mouth better. And with all of these muscles getting stronger it will also help Danielle with communication and getting out those vowel sounds.
So we do this session 3 days per week for 6-8 weeks, in addition to her other PT, Speech and OT therapy also. So to say we are busy is a bit of an understatement! But Danielle is showing great results in just the 5 sessions that she has had. We have started with a rubber tool to help Danielle get that flavor of food moved around her mouth and also strengthening her 'bite'. So on this tool she puts different flavors such as, apple juice, strawberry shortcake sucker and various pureed foods like applesauce, baby food etc. I took a couple short video's at the end of this week and the progress is very encouraging! This coming week we will start moving back into a spoon and getting Danielle to lick the spoon and move the food around her mouth in order to swallow. We also started getting Danielle to stick out her tongue and try to lick the sucker. It breaks my heart that such eating tasks like licking a sucker can be difficult for Danielle....this is something that most people probably take for granted, yet for her it can be a challenge to work all of those muscles at the same time. But this Therapy will only help those tasks and for this we are SO thankful! So we are in a really good place right now and SO extremely thankful for all of the Therapists that work 4 days a week for our daughter! We finally feel that we have the right 'mix' of people in our life that work for our baby girl! Danielle does not complain one bit and in fact she communicates with our therapists like you would not believe. Signing to them and shaking her head 'yes' or 'no', rolling her eyes even, yep that super fun 2 year old stage is in full gear and we LOVE every minute of it!
Stay tuned for more great steps in the right direction :)

2 year update...

2010-08-29T20:18:00.013-05:00

Danielle has been such a little busy body these past 2 months since she had her Birthday! We were able to get in for her 2 yr check up and her stats were great. Weighing in at 17 lbs 13 ounces, 31.5 inches long and growing steadily. Danielle is growing in length far faster than weight, her spot on the curve is holding tight, but we are working to have her gain some pounds! She is hungry so that isn't the issue, it is just finding the right mix of food and liquid to get her the most calories to help give her that boost! Now this week we have begun mixing in fresh Avocado's with some of her pureed veggies and boy oh boy I think we've found a favorite! Danielle just LOVES the Avocado, that is perfect because it is very good for her!

We also took Danielle to IC a couple times for follow-up visits. She met with our Odo doctor about her ears. Thankfully he did see the tubes were both in place. This was wonderful news because we had suspected since March that one may have fallen out. Sadly, he did have to suction a bunch of wax out of her left ear. Thankfully Daddy was at this appointment because I am not sure I could have done it alone as Dylan was along also. Danielle was not a happy camper during the suctioning, but it really was clogged and they were able to get it cleaned out and the tube is still in place. Literally seconds after they cleared it and she quit crying she was telling us ALL kinds of stories...so it really must feel better, thank goodness!

We also met with our wonderful Neurosurgeon last week for an MRI and follow-up visit. Thank the lord, things are looking wonderful! Her scans looked the best that they ever have. The doctor always was happy with them before but now his words, 'I can finally accept these I am extremely happy and these are by far the best scans yet.' We were just elated with this news, this means less fluid in her ventricles, her cavity is going down and there is good brain growth. We got the all clear to not go back for 6 months!!!! This is very exciting news :We also got Danielle's 2 yr pics taken at the beginning of August. Kristi Bowers @ Luella B. Photography did an amazing job at capturing Danielle's 2 year moments. She also put together a beautiful video of these pics for us to an amazing song that is very fitting for our family. Enjoy! We continue therapy two times per week, OT (Visual Therapy) & PT... and all is going great. We now have a new PT who we feel is a great fit for Danielle and we are enjoying our weekly sessions. We will soon be starting yet another therapy session with speech therapy. We are on the waiting list. We are excited for this to get Danielle speaking more words. This will be great for Danielle. We had our first evaluation appointment and it went great. Danielle was mimicking the therapist and that was so wonderful to hear. We are working on those first sounds 'P', 'B' & 'M' are the most tricky. Danielle is regularly saying 'hi' and has been for quite some time. Over the past month she has also added 'mama' much music to my ears! She says this mostly when she is sad and fussing.

The lord is closely watching down on our family and our precious daughter! We are so proud of the progress she is making on a weekly basis and we are even more proud watching her work so hard to do the things that she really wants to do!~

The MOST exciting and new news is that.....Danielle has also been starting to walk with a walker during her therapy sessions. This is just adorable and too precious for words. She really has amazed us with her willing-ness to get up and go even after she has just had a full therapy session. We hope to have a walker at home to 'demo' in the next week or so, then we also will order one to keep at home. The second session Danielle took 5 steps, it was amazing, mommy got all teary eyed watching! We are SO proud of her and are very anxious, as she is, to be up and chasing Dylan!

We are very excited for all of the wonderful new Adventures Danielle is experiencing! We are SO extremely proud of her and we learn many lessons from her daily. Dylan continues to be her biggest protector next to us of course, he is very very sensitive to her needs and her wants also. She loves him and loves watching him and listening to him talk non-stop. During story time though it is a battle on who gets to turn the pages. Danielle loves to turn the pages as this is something they do in therapy, well Dylan sure reminds her often that he likes to turn the pages in the book also! Dylan is definitely the best big brother for Danielle and he is very very good with her. We couldn't have asked for a better bond with our kids. LOVE every second!~

I am 2 today!!!!

2010-06-27T19:32:00.015-05:00

to our precious little girl!!!

Neither Brad nor I can believe that our little princess is already 2 years old! WOW, time does surly fly by when you are a parent! We opted for a family day celebration this year, and what a fantastic day it was. Danielle had been feeling pretty icky for the past 3 days or so, and today, just in time for her birthday she was finally feeling just about 100%! We woke up and after we were up and about for a bit the sun decided to shine, it got nice and hot outside and we decided what a wonderful day it would be spent at the pool! So we got our suits on, packed a little cooler and swim gear and we were off!

And look who was the first to greet us....a mommy duck and her little ducklings! We laughed and laughed, all she wanted to do was take her babies for a swim, and all the lifeguards kept doing was shooing them out of the water. Too cute!

Dylan and Danielle were super excited to get to swim in the 'big' pool today! We have our 2 small pools at home that are super fun too, but nothing compares to when Mom and Dad can get in and be silly in the water too!

Danielle just loved the water, it was nice and warm, she didn't even mind the splashing and water spray features, she just blinked her eyes a few times to rid of excess water and was back to kicking and telling us all about the fun she was having!

Today was a great day spent at the pool for our girls special day! We spent a couple hours there and swam our hearts out!

We arrived home and Grandpa Kinney was waiting there for us! He wanted to give the birthday girl some special loves and presents on her big birthday! We sat out on the deck and finished drying off from the pool, soaked up some sun....we love summer time!

They had brought Halen and Roxy along for the ride too and Dylan was very excited to see Grandpa's puppy's!!!
Big brother Dylan was all ready to help Danielle open her Birthday gifts, so both kiddo's piled onto Grandpa's lap for the first round of opening presents! Birthday's are SO much fun!

'Oooh, pretty', Dylan says!

LOVE the Hawkeye outfit, gearing up for football season!

We then ventured inside for some pizza, cake and round #2 of opening gifts!

Danielle really enjoyed her Watermelon decorated ice cream cake...yummy!

And then we tore into those gifts, Dylan was of course very excited to get to help!

We first opened gifts from the LeConte's in Wisconsin!

Danielle was super excited for her new purse and toys!!!

And her new hat and outfit for her American Girl Bitty Baby! Adorable!!!

And Emily even made Danielle some very special handmade hair bows! We put them all in her hair to show them off. Perfect flower to match her picture outfit and bows to wear during football season while cheering on our favorite teams!!

Thank you LeConte Family :)

Next up, her new shape sorter! Our therapist has been working with Danielle to have her drop the shapes in the correct, matching spot. Now we can practice at home too!

And she really loved her talking, singing purse too! Complete with lipstick, car keys, a mirror and compact! Just what every little girl needs!

And stacking cups! Not as exciting....until you stack them all up and 'crash' them all down as we do at therapy! Fun new things to make lots of noise! There was also a couple new outfits to add to the closet, totally necessary for the birthday girl!

'Yum-o, this ice cream is delicious!'

Dylan even thought so too!

Gotta get every last dribble that we can reach with our tongue!

Mmm, now time for a bath!

We had such a wonderful day with our little birthday girl! We are SO proud of you baby girl for fighting, never giving up and continuing to want to learn new things every single day! You are a trooper, the twinkle in our eye and our princess! Thank you Danielle for being you, we are SO blessed to be your Mommy and Daddy! We love you SO much sweetheart, we hope you had a wonderful 2Nd Birthday and we hope that ALL of your Birthday wishes come true!!

This story melted our hearts...

2010-05-16T07:50:00.011-05:00

A news anchor woman and her husband have sure gone thru quite a lot for their miracle baby boy. We saw this story on the news last night and in some ways it does hit close to home. Danielle also has Hydrocephalus, which is one of the reason's for her shunt. As we can relate to these parents, we go to great lengths for our children, all children are miracles and you just have to believe!

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Health/medical-bills-mom-finds-resources-cost-care/story?id=10657084

In reading the comments from parents in similar situations, hearing scary things from doctors about the medical needs of their children, we remember that we continually must be strong! We go on and continue to be optimistic that we will prove them wrong! Children have a miraculous way of touching our hearts.

No matter how many times we take Danielle to therapy each week, how many times we need to leave work for appointments, no matter what the cost is of anything she needs, only one thing matters at the end of the day....that she is with us, we are home together doing everything in our power to help our little girl every day of her life! She is doing great and for that we are SO blessed! We see her smile, the twinkle in her eye, her little giggle and her greeting us by saying 'hi', we will never give up, our precious baby girl is our life, our children are our life. We fight for the best doctors, the best medical care, the best therapists for our little girl and for those people who help Danielle on a daily basis, those whom we are fortunate enough to have in our lives...we are SO thankful!

Meet Lisa, she is our most favorite therapist EVER! We love her and ALL she does for our baby girl!

"Miracles happen every day, change your perception of what a Miracle is and you'll see them all around you." Jon Bon Jovi

We are so happy that the parents in this article also continue to fight and pray and give their little boy the wonderful life that he deserves! After all.....that is what the wonderful gift of parenthood is all about ;)

Spring Checkup....

2010-05-02T16:54:00.010-05:00

Last week we took Danielle to IC for her MRI and check-up with the Neurosurgeon. I was a little nervous because this was also the first time that we needed to take Danielle's earrings out because she couldn't have them in for her MRI. Well that was no issue at all. Danielle did great, didn't even flinch and her pretty little ears with earrings continue to look great! Danielle did extremely well for her MRI. She did not have to be sedated which again, is a blessing in itself. Normally we have a few of the same MRI techs, this time it was a few young men. Mommy was nervous that they wouldn't get her tucked in just right, but after a few pointers from us as to what Danielle prefers, she did great. She didn't even let out a peep, we didn't have to hold her hand or tap on her leg as we usually do. This big girl did great!

We met with Dr. Menezes for the results and re-programming of her shunt. Dr. Menezes is the most fabulous doctor for Danielle. Is is truly the best and every visit we have with him reminds us of this! He asked us what Danielle is doing new and different, how she is eating and sleeping, acting and how vocal she is. We revealed to him the new 'things' she is doing. Little things that she probably could not have done back in December without assistance, that she is now doing on her own. He was very happy and what we told him.....conveyed also what her scans showed. They looked great! There is less fluid in the brain cavity and the cavity is going down which is wonderful.

So we got the all clear to not go back for another 4 months. This is wonderful news. We have the whole summer without having to go to IC except for her eye exam. He encouraged us to start giving her more table foods to help pack on some more pounds. She is gaining length in huge strides, while her weight is increasing slower. So although this is new, we will be experimenting with new foods for Danielle. She is already eating yogurt for breakfast, baby food for lunch and dinner but we are going to slowly take away the baby food and add more table food. She is still taking a bottle after each and every 'meal', we will continue this for extra calories and vitamins and also nutrition! We have been adding Vitamin D milk in with her formula and occasionally some Vanilla or Chocolate Carnation Instant Breakfast....which of course she loves! So we were very happy with this visit!

Uncle Chase is home for the summer and the kids really enjoy his company...and so do Brad and I! He gets on the floor and gives each child lots and lots of snuggles and play time and the just eat it up! We are very happy to have him staying with us for now and being able to see Chase frequently this summer!!!

Danielle and Daddy are back in another session of Aqua Tots with our dear friends Kirsten and her hubby Mike and their daughter Lila. The Daddy's and girls are having a great time and us mom's really enjoy chatting and watching too. This session is also at the exact time as Dylan has his lessons, so one side of the pool is Dylan and straight across are the daddy's and girls. It works out great! Danielle and Brad have a new instructor. This lady that teaches the class also brings her little boy to partake in the class also. This brings a whole new variety of songs and games as the instructor is truly joining in the learning with her little one also! So we are enjoying our lesson time!

That is a great back float peanut!!! The girls love to sing songs!!

This weekend we had a big play date with the Eddins' and Hahn's and the kids. The kids played, we grilled out and enjoyed the nice afternoon sunshine out on the deck. We had a wonderful time with our friends and letting the kids be kids. The 3 little girls on the floor playing is such a wonderful sight. Danielle and Henley were sharing the play yard and all of a sudden we looked over and Danielle's foot was in Henley's mouth and she was sucking on it! SO funny, kids will be kids right?! Dylan enjoyed the company of his friends as well!

We are excited for the month of May. Lots of fun things coming up and we have started planting flowers around here to add some color to our landscaping!! This is one of our favorite times of year....sunshine warming our hearts, bright colors galore; from green grass to blooming flowers, and chirping birds.... reminding us of all of the beautiful nature around us!~

Baby talk!

2010-03-28T13:45:00.006-05:00

As we have mentioned before Danielle is quite vocal these days. Giving us a little 'sass' at times and telling us all about what she is thinking. Her little voice is music to our ears! This weekend, just before her bedtime, we caught a little bit of her story on video. It's pretty cute watching her busy little body move all over and listen to her telling us all about her day!

In Danielle's words

Spring Show 2010...

2010-03-21T15:57:00.021-05:00

Last night Danielle and I had an evening together.....at Spring Show 2010! Cousin Mackenzie is on the Monticello Expressions Dance Team and last night was their year end performance. Danielle and I really enjoyed going to watch Kenzie.... dance her heart out!

The Stage was set....

The girls were all escorted by their parents, aww...

The team and their parents....their biggest supporters!

The evening started out with a variety of dances and in between were a few solo's and impromptu skits. We had great company with Cassie, Zach, Cody, Aunt Linda and Great Grandma Holub. Danielle was really in aww looking around at all of the action around her. But when the first round of applause happened, she didn't quite know what to think. She nearly jumped out of her skin and the big pucker lip came and the tears started to flow. Aunt Linda had her snuggled pretty tight which really helped a lot. She even took Danielle into the hallway for a little break! Thanks Aunt Linda!
And the girls took to the dance floor!!

Kenzie is a very talented dancer, being just a freshman, she has many years of dancing ahead of her. For not ever, have, taken a dance class in her life, you would never know it by watching her, this girl has talent!!!

Mambo #5, dancing with the guys! So cute!

The girls did a 'mother, daughter dance' and a 'father, daughter dance'. Dan and Connie both got out there and busted a move. I was quite impressed! Great job mom and dad!!

I caught just the very end on video!

For the last routine the girls were in these hamster like body bags. Oh my goodness! These things were just hilarious! They did the whole dance in these bags, talk about having your timing down, that was a must because they couldn't see a thing! I was just cracking up, so much that I had to take a short video, too cute!!

I believe the girls danced 15 dances in the show. That is just amazing! Changing outfits, gearing up for each dance in just a matter of minutes, smiling and showing all of their friends and family what hard work they have put into each and every routine throughout the year. We were very happy to be there for Mackenzie, and are already looking forward to watching her next year!

Great Job Kenz!!!

Getting in some snuggles with Cassie!

Danielle and I really enjoyed our evening together! It was very nice to have some mother/daughter time and for Daddy and Dylan to have their time also! I look forward to many more of these 'girl' dates sweetie! Mommy loves you SO much (and so does Daddy too), thank you for being my little STAR!!!~

Girls just wanna have fun....

2010-02-28T18:41:00.012-06:00

Danielle has been having fun with 'girl time' the past few weeks. We had pictures taken with her little friends Lila and Henley a few weeks ago. We headed to Jill Christine for a little photo shoot and the girls in their matching Leopard Print dresses. The experience was one for the memory books, lots of laughs now looking back on the whole thing.....pictures of the 3 pretty girls to come!

Danielle has been extremely vocal these past few weeks. More vocal than ever before....it is like music to our ears! When she is at therapy she literally talks back to the Therapist, when she is on the floor with some of her favorite toys she talks to them, to mom and dad she regularly says 'hi', the most precious little voice ever! She has quite the little personality, as you can see sometimes when she is feeling silly she prefers to move her body to chew on the toys without having to use her hands to hold the toy to her mouth...smart lil' cookie!!

Grandpa Kinney was over for a visit last weekend. Danielle got in some snuggle time, we all know how much she loves that! She was very excited to see her Grandpa, and he was VERY excited to see and spend time with the kids!

Last Monday night Danielle and Daddy started the YMCA's version of Aqua Tots! They are doing the class with our great friends Mike and Kirsten's baby girl Lila, Mike and Lila joined the class as well. Dylan just loved this class last year so we thought it would be perfect for the little girls to do as well. It was a HIT! The water was warm, but look a bit for Danielle to get use to. After that she was smiles, fluttering her little legs about as the sang, blew bubbles, played with rubber duckies and basketball. Danielle just loves bath time so we knew she would love this, and she did, she had a blast! Afterwards getting her dried off and dressed she was telling us all about it, talking up a storm, chatting and squealing, too cute! The happy words of our baby!

This is a weekly class on Monday nights, so much fun for the Daddy's to do this together with their little girls! Last week was a hit, the Daddy's and little girls had a great time and the mommy's loved watching. We are so proud of them and we can't wait to see what next week will bring!

This weekend we also had a little dinner/play date with our friends and the little girls! It was fun to see Danielle, Lila and Henley all together again. Looking at little Henley, only 6 weeks old, brings back the memories of Danielle that small, it wasn't that long ago but it seems like it has been forever! Even looking at Lila, now 10 months, thinking 'WOW in a few months she will celebrate her first birthday'! It seems like just yesterday the little girls were getting to know each other right after Lila was born! Time as a parent sure goes by SO fast. We really enjoy the company of each other, sharing funny parenthood stories, the joy's of everyday life as a Mom and Dad. It was a great night and the girls had lots of play time!

Today found us vising Great Grandma Holub in Prairieburg. Grandma was SO excited to see the kids and they were as excited to see her also. Both kids gave Great Grandma a very warm reception! As always Grandma had lots of goodies set out for the kids....after some goodies and play time the kids each gave Grandma lots of snuggles! Also visiting were Aunt Connie and Kenzie. The kids were very excited to see them. Danielle told lots of stories and had a lot of smiles to show off today. She is such a happy girl, loves snuggle time and lots of attention, but is also happy playing on the floor stretching out and moving all around! We love it, today was a super fun time at Great Grandma's house!!

Tonight it was supper time and early to bed. Neither of the kids have had naps this weekend, they have had lots of play time and were just exhausted. So it was early to bed for the wee ones, in preparation for a busy week!~

Happy Valentines Day....

2010-02-14T15:14:00.013-06:00

Today is a day to show love for those special people in our lives. Although we do this on a regular basis anyway, today we did a few special things for the loved ones in our life....our beautiful children!!! The kids awoke to some fun goodies from mom and dad this morning. They were so surprised and very excited to see what was in each of their goodie bags! Dylan opened his first, as he was just so full of anticipation on what he was going to get. Danielle was very patient and opened hers next! Mom and dad picked out another cute pair of Fuzzy Heart pj's, can never have too many of them....as well as a cute late Winter/Spring outfit, a 'I' shirt to wear when watching our beloved Hawkeyes, and a book. Danielle was very excited to have a few new things!

We relaxed this morning, exchanged a few small Valentines before getting ready and heading out for a nice lunch. Granite City was delicious for lunch today, Danielle snoozed thru most of it but she was happy to be out of the house for a little bit! After lunch we ran a couple of errands, stopped at Menards so mommy and daddy could pick up a few things, before heading home.

This afternoon brought much needed naps for the kids and after naps some baking! Mom is going to bake a heart shaped cake with the kids. Pictures to come soon....

We have really enjoyed each other today. Another fun filled day for our family, that is most importantly about togetherness and being appreciative for each others love.

Happy Valentines Day sweet baby Danielle! Thank you for filling our hearts with unending love!
One last thing.....Brad and I have decided to start a family blog. We will still update the kids blogs but there are so many fun 'family' things going on that we wanted to document we figured we would start a blog specifically for family and fun family time. Check it out at http://bradamberfam.blogspot.com ~

Hospital admission :-(

2010-01-31T08:48:00.015-06:00

Danielle had been doing great. Her brother got a bought with Bronchitis just over a week ago and we were SO extremely happy that she didn't get it too. Or so we thought.....Wednesday night I picked her up from daycare, she was happy as a lark, had a great day, just like any other day. We got home I put her on her changing table to take her bunting off and she threw up. Okay, no biggie I thought. She needed a bath so we headed for a nice warm bath, bath nights at our house are a big hit because Danielle just loves them. After her bath I got her dressed, warmed up a bottle, fed her. She ate about 1/2 and threw up, just mucous it seemed. She ate the rest of her bottle and her eyes started to become a little glazed over. So we decided not to push the baby food and instead, I checked her temp, it was 102. I was a bit worried, Danielle never gets a fever. Some kids get fevers frequently, she is not one of them.

On a side note: Dylan loves to help with the baby. Last Sunday our power went out so Dylan thought we had to leave. Thankfully it was only out for a short time, but Dylan didn't understand why we weren't putting the baby's shoes on to go bye bye even though by this point the power was back on! So he thought he would put them on her himself!

So Wednesday night, we snuggled and rested. Dylan became very concerned. We gave her some Tylenol and put her to bed. She slept until about 3:30am, I got up with her, checked her temp 101.2. Her fever was back again. We had already decided daddy would stay home with her for the day Thursday, mommy would take Dylan to daycare and attend to her very busy day at work.

As Thursday morning progressed, baby started throwing up, frequently. She was really scaring daddy. We were both worried, especially about her shunt. A potential sign of a shunt malfunction is vomiting. Because of the fever we were hoping that this was NOT what was going on, but it was in our minds. I called and made an appointment with Dr. Collins at 2pm. By 11 Danielle was throwing up about every 10-15 minutes. Brad was very very scared, I called the doc to get her in sooner and became very frustrated when the nurse told me that she would be fine until her 2pm appointment. By this time Danielle had begun to vomit stomach bile, we felt that she was getting dehydrated. We didn't want to take her to the ER because then we would have a doc that didn't know her or anything about her and it would take forever to get seen. So at 1pm daddy headed to the doc, drove slow because since she was vomiting so much he needed to be able to stop and check on her during his drive into the doctors office.

Upon arrival the nurse knew right away Danielle was very sick. She was making small moaning noises and getting very sick very fast. Dr. Collins came in, witnessed her vomiting and ordered blood work immediately and an RSV test. The RSV test threw Brad because she didn't have any obvious symptoms, NO coughing, NO wheezing, not really a buggery nose, but just a slight fever at this point. Thankfully our wonderful cousin, nurse Jessie, came to assist a scared and worried daddy. Mommy was in meetings at work and was watching her phone closely. The tests came back, positive for RSV, her CBC was elevated. So we were off to the ER for chest x-rays to check for pneumonia. I met Brad at St. Lukes and we got her checked out. She was still continuing to vomit and just not herself. It brought tears to my eyes how in just a matter of hours, baby girl could be feeling SO much worse. She got the x-rays, the really sad looking positional ones in the tube. That just breaks a mom and dad's heart, but she was a trooper. We waited for the results, the doctor called and told us she also had pneumonia...WHAT?! We were SO confused, shocked and just felt horrible for our sick baby girl. She admitted us to the hospital, daddy went to pick up Dylan from daycare and mommy went to the PICU and got Danielle situated.

It was very strange being back in the hospital. A place we had been over a year and a half before... day in and day out with our little baby girl. We were back, not a good feeling, unfortunately we were very familiar with our surroundings, but we knew she would be well taken care of.

They started IV's immediately, took more blood work for a blood culture and tried to make our baby comfortable. She wanted to be held, she could barely stay awake, she was pale, our hearts sunk.....

As parents we think we know our kids, very well, more than anyone else, how could we miss this....Pneumonia and RSV of all things and just weeks after getting her monthly dose of Synegis (RSV preventative) shot???? We were monitored over night, Danielle stopped throwing up and at 10pm took a whole bottle and kept it down. The fever subsided slightly, she never needed any Tylenol to break it, it broke on it's own. She slept great, in her crib even. Although mommy wanted to snuggle her all night long, I slept along side her in the chair and knew she would sleep better in the crib. They woke us every 4 hours for a breathing treatment, vitals etc. She went right back to sleep. By morning she was close to acting like herself again. A happy little girl, she cracked a few smiles and her lips were pink again. She was still pale but continued to be breathing great. Her sats were wonderful, she never needed oxygen, in fact her pulse ox never beeped off all night long, she was a rock star patient! Her precious smile came back!

More blood work showed her less dehydrated, an exam by Dr. Collins showed her to be better all the way around. She asked us to stay for the day and at 4-5pm she would call and get a report and decide if we could go home. Since Danielle had been eating and holding food down, didn't require any supplemental oxygen and was becoming more active we got the go ahead to head home! YAY! Mom and Dad were so happy, 24 hours in the PICU was long enough. We have strict orders to continue breathing treatments until Thursday, even though she is showing no respiratory distress and her lungs are clear, this is a preventative. Dr. Collins agreed that Danielle's dose of Synegis a few weeks ago prevented her from becoming extremely sick. That is also why she did not show any other signs, wheezing, coughing etc. The vomiting was all of the fluid that was in her lungs, she thankfully was getting it OUT!

We headed home, our family was all together once again! Antibiotic, steroid, nebulizer treatments and a lot of TLC! Danielle is totally acting herself again. She is very hungry, which is great, probably making up for the day she didn't eat, she is sleeping 12 hours at least and last night 14 hours! YES, that was a record! She is on the mend, nothing makes mom and dad happier and Dylan too. He was very concerned about his sister, he missed having her home, he is very attentive to her needs, he is the perfect big brother!

So last week was chaotic to say the least. We survived, the lord listened to our prayers and watched over our baby girl. We have a re-check on Tuesday and are excited to get great news that our baby girl is all better. Her fever has been gone since Friday afternoon, although she doesn't like her medicines, we get them down. We are very much looking forward to Spring! The serious sickness' to go away, the warm weather to move on in and our kids to be able to be outside, run and play in the thick green grass....as mom and dad sit back and watch the miracles of our world in action!

Thank you lord for protecting our family, keeping our baby girl on the road to recovery and helping us to be reunited at home, for a few days of rest before yet another busy week!~

New beginnings....

2010-01-17T09:48:00.014-06:00

This is the year for new beginnings. New adventures, new outlooks and new things!
Danielle has been such a happy girl these past few weeks. She is generally always happy but she is really just a joy to be around. We have had some quality family time enjoying the new year and we have also had some fun times with family and friends!

Aunt Connie, Cassie and Kenzie came over for a Sunday afternoon visit! They had gifts for the kids and we had gifts for the girls too! They are always SO thoughtful, thinking of us and our kids, and the kids just LOVE them to pieces! The kids got some really neat books and Danielle got the most adorable little boots ever! They fit her little feet perfect! Danielle got in some snuggle time with Kenzie, we all know how Danielle loves to be snuggled!

We have also had a visit from Great Grandma Martin, she came by to visit the kids and to bring them Christmas presents. Ed and Alice came by, it was their first time seeing either of the kids and both kids sure loved the attention. Danielle got some fun toys from Great Grandma and some snuggles too! We will be visiting Great Grandma Holub soon and we can't wait for that!

Daddy and Dylan love their reading time. Dylan constantly brings books over to mom and dad to read. We have been including Danielle in on story time also. It is great bonding time and Danielle loves to listen as we read the books and Dylan repeats after us. These moments are priceless as our children learn from what we read!

Danielle got a new highchair type seat just before Christmas. She loves it, much better than our other high chair we had been trying to use. Feeding time is SO important and we struggled finding something that Danielle was comfortable in. After 2 other chairs mommy found this one and thankfully it is a HIT! She feels supported and she can kick and squirm without a heavy tray on top of her constricting her from moving her legs. She loves her baby food. We let her eat her favorite foods for Miss Michelle at daycare and we try new foods at home. Feeding time is going great!

Our beloved Hawkeyes made it to the Orange Bowl this year and we were SO excited to cheer them on! We dressed in our Iowa gear and got our munchies ready, Hawkeye fever was in full swing!

This was our little home 'mascot'. Dylan just loves these Hawkeye napkins and he wanted them out so we set them out showing our Hawkeye spirit! Anything to make the kids happy, right?!

The Hawkeyes played a fantastic game and pulled out a BIG WIN! It sure was a great day to be a Hawkeye!

In this year of new beginnings, we decided to pull the plug and get Danielle's ears pierced! This is something that we have frequently talked about since last Spring. We have contemplated when would be the best time to do it?! Well with Danielle having MRI's every 6-10 weeks there really wasn't an ideal time to get it done. Now that it is over 15 weeks until her next MRI we figured this just maybe the perfect time!

Last Sunday was going to be the day. Then we kind of chickened out and decided to wait. Then Tuesday was going to be the day. Daddy picked up Dylan and Mommy picked up Danielle and we headed out to the mall. The girl working at the store told us she couldn't pierce ears that day, she had a cold and they are not to do any piercings if they have any symptoms of sickness at all. We had never heard those rules before but we sure appreciated those and their honesty. So we headed back home and decided to try it the next day.

We headed back the next evening and the lady was so nice and eager to help us. We picked out little square diamonds and sat up in the chair. Danielle got her ears marked and then it was time for the piercing. She pierced the left ear first....I looked down after Danielle let out a little cry and looked at it. The earring was in the perfect spot but I was thinking' hmmm this diamond looks a little big.' Just then the lady said that the package was mis-marked and she showed me, the package was for a 3mm earring which is what we had picked....but, the earring was a 6mm earring. There was NO way we could leave it in her ear, the earring was HUGE! So she had to pull it out and re-pierce Danielle's ear. Her ear did not bleed and the most traumatic part was taking out the earring. She re-pierced Danielle's ear and the correct earring looked much better. The whole process, even with having to re-pierce one ear, wasn't too traumatic at all. Danielle did great, the lady was very gentile, took all precautions and overall the process went very well.

Daddy was happy too! Danielle looks so grown up with her little ears pierced!

Another new beginning for 2010 came for our friends Brandon and Monica. They welcomed their new bundle of joy Henley Grace Hahn on 1/13. We have anticipated the arrival of our kids newest play mate for months now, and this week she came and we were finally able to meet her! Holding a new baby was quite different than holding Miss Danielle. Danielle still seems tiny to us until we hold a newborn! At 6 pounds 6 ounces Henley is a healthy baby girl. She has such loving parents who are very excited to finally have her in their arms and we can't wait to watch her grow! Congratulations Brandon and Monica!

Danielle has also had some fun play time with her friend Lila! Lila came over to visit with her mom and dad and the kids just LOVE having her around! Lila is getting so big and busy! She will be crawling in no time! She was very content sitting on the floor with Danielle, just playing with toys and showing us her fun personality!

Danielle wasn't in the mood to sit so she laid in the boppy and laughed and giggled with her little friend!

Lila was sharing toys with Danielle, it was pretty cute! We always have a fun time when Lila comes over to play. We can't wait until the next play time comes :)

One of Danielle's favorite toys she got for Christmas is this flower. You tap it and it makes noise, lights up and even sings songs. Danielle just loves it.

She occasionally gets wild and crazy moving it all around.

It is the perfect interactive toy. Danielle sure knows how to get it to light up and makes noise. It is so much fun to watch her figure out toys and how to get them to activate. She's a smart little cookie!

Just this past week we also got something new for Danielle. She got thumb splints as a suggestion from our Visual Therapist. Danielle does not have any trouble grasping things or holding onto them, she does not clench her hands into a fist when un-necessary, but occasionally she will tuck her thumb into her hand while her fingers are spread apart. With these thumb splints, this will help Danielle to learn that she doesn't need to tuck her thumb when her fingers are spread apart. This will help her when she is on her tummy and gets up on all 4's ready to crawl. She loves when we would massage her thumbs to get those muscles loosened, we would to this when we would see her tucking it in. She also doesn't mind these splints a bit. She wears these for an hour a couple times per day, just enough to get her thinking when she doesn't have them on that her thumb doesn't need to be tucked when her hands are open. We picked hot pink for a stylin' little girl, helping her loosen up those thumb muscles in preparation for her next big milestones... doesn't get any better than that for helping our little Danielle!

We are very happy to have had such a great start to the new year! It is hard to believe that this first month is already half over! We have been able to have quite a few new beginnings this year and we also have celebrated our friends new beginnings.

Thank you lord for these blessings and for our happy girl Danielle Marie!~

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T20:58:00.009-06:00

Welcome to 2010!

This New Year's Eve our celebration was spent with great family and friends in Fairfax! We started out the evening with yummy snacks and enjoying each others company. The kids had a great time watching video's and playing games of their own.
Danielle loved getting all kinds of snuggles and watching everyone around her! She is such a joy to be around and definitely prefers to be held most of the time. She is not afraid to snuggle right into whomever is holding her!

This was perfect for the kids. The big kids were good about including the little kids in the games they were playing. Dylan loved watching the kids play a mean game of Twister! Danielle can't wait until she is a little older to get right in on the fun games too!

She sure was a trooper. She stayed awake ALL night long! Everyone kept thinking that she would finally give in and close those pretty eyes of hers, but nope, she was bright eyed and bushy tailed even on the drive home!

Another favorite of the kids at our New Years Eve Celebration was making homemade ice cream sundae's! YUMMY! Sheila brought all of these yummy toppings and delicious ice cream wafer bowls to hold all of the goodies!

Look at all of that caramel! Even the adults indulged on a yummy dessert ice cream sundae! Great idea!While daddy joined in on a few games of poker Danielle enjoyed watching and showing her emotion when the emotions at the poker table were running high as well!A bit after we welcomed in 2010 we snuggled Danielle in her pj's for the car ride home. She looks to be sleeping so soundly..BUT...don't let her fool you, just a 5 minute cat-nap was all she needed to re-energize! At 1:30am we arrived home and tucked her into bed, finally some zzzz's! She was definitely keeping up with the rest of us at this New Years Eve Celebration!And after some sleep she was ready for some morning play time with daddy on New Years Day!
Our family gladly welcomes 2010. We are praying for a great year for our family. Although 2009 was a great year we hope this one is even better.

2009 started out great with Danielle getting off oxygen at the very beginning of March. In May Danielle had her first airplane ride to the sunshine and warm temps of Arizona. In June we had another plane ride to visit Grammie and Great Grandpa Phillips in Pennsylvania. We also celebrated Danielle's 1st Birthday at the end of June. What a fun celebration we had! We had many things to celebrate on that bright and sunny day in June! In August we ventured on a fun weekend getaway with our friends the LeConte's to Wisconsin. In September we celebrated Labor Day in Des Moines at Adventureland with Ellie and the Aarhus family! Danielle took her first real swim in the pool with daddy and she loved every minute of it! We also celebrated Dylan's 3rd birthday with a Hawkeye party for him. October brought Danielle's first trick-or-treating, she was the cutest 'adorable' witch ever! November brought ear tubes for Danielle but she really needed them, she had too many ear infections to count and we are proud to report that tubes have done wonders for her! Thanksgiving was spent with great family at the Krejci's, and what a feast we had! We also ventured to ride on our first 'Polar Express' Train ride that weekend in Boone. The kids really enjoyed their first train ride. December was really chilly and brought us a lot of snow so we decided to enjoy Christmas in sunny Arizona! Danielle had her second trip to the dessert west and we had such a great time enjoying sunshine and warm temps for Christmas this year! We ended the year with Danielle's tear duct surgery, it went okay, not totally according to plan, but we are hoping with lots of hope and prayers that things are just fine. New Year's Eve was spent with Aunt Ellie, Uncle Bill, the Aarhus family and friends....what a way to send out 2009 with a bang and welcome in the New Year!

We are praying that 2010 brings lots of health, love and happiness for our family. Wonderful follow-up doctor visits when they come and we are praying for a surgery free year!

Welcome 2010, we are optimistic this will be a great year for our family!

Surgery again....

2009-12-29T19:48:00.007-06:00

Today was another day that mom and dad dreaded for our baby girl. Surgery day....again.

When Danielle was in the NICU she began to have quite a bit of drainage out of her right and left eye. The left eye over time seemed to heal, the duct cleared. Well, the right eye has continued to be pretty icky. She constantly has bright green drainage coating her beautiful long eyelashes. I have suggested this to her Pediatrician several times and the eye doctor as well. Late this summer Danielle begun to have this drainage quite a bit more and each time it was cultured and determined to be strep. This isn't a good thing and when I notified Danielle's eye doctor in IC, we went right in for an exam and set up a surgery date.

Surgery was the last thing we wanted baby girl to go thru again. The worst part for mom and dad was the eye doctor telling us that they could have possibly done this procedure at the same time as her ear tubes....UGH, talk about feeling like bad parents.

Well today was the day, we knew she would be in great hands as Dr. Olson was also the doctor that did Dylan's laser eye surgery when he was in the NICU. We had been told by several doctors of Danielle's what a minimal procedure this would be. Dr. Olson went over a couple 'worse' case scenarios with us and we were praying those would not be the case. We arrived at UIHC bright and early this morning and Danielle was the happiest little thing even though she hadn't eaten for 12 hours. She is quite the trooper! The Anesthesiologist met with us, the eye doctor met with us and they took her back. At 45 minutes the procedure should have been done, at 1 hour and 15 minutes mom was a little concerned. Finally they came to tell us that she was in recovery. We went into the 2ND stage room and Dr. Olson came right in to give us the news. Well the first words out of his mouth were....

'Surgery went fine BUT I have to say your daughter is SO beautiful, she sure awed everyone in the OR today with her smile. We were just starting to put the mask on her to put her to sleep and she kept smiling at all of us and looking around and smiling more, I mean....how could we put her to sleep when she was smiling at all of us? So we waited until she got those smiles out, but she sure melted our hearts today.'

That literally melted mom and dad's heart too. That's our baby girl alright, the happiest princess in town :)

So surgery went okay. Dr. was a little frustrated because it didn't go as planned. The plan was to probe her duct and dilate it so it was open for drainage. Well as one of the 'not so likely things' he ran into. One of the 6 teeny tiny bones in the top of her nose, one was blocking the duct. So he moved it back into place, but then the probe wouldn't continue on like it should have. So as he mentioned, 'not so likely #2' he had to do, poke thru the teeny thin layer of tissue to find the remainder of the duct. Well he injected the dye and it didn't suction thru like it should have.

So what does this mean?....we don't really know. We need to give it time, at least a few months time. We will pray, pray every day that things will be fine for our little girl. All of the inflammation needs to heal and we will see what happens. If her eye gets goopy after the initial 'healing' is over then we will probably know. The doctor was honest, he felt horrible. He said this is the 1st time in probably 3 years that this has happened. He was frustrated, we know he is a good doctor, we trust him, he has really helped our children. So we will wait, if this isn't corrected, well then, we will need to talk about seeing a plastic surgeon. But for now that is a distant, very distant thought.

As we have learned as parents, the parents of preemie baby's and 2 miracle children, time is of the essence. We will continue to take each day as it comes, hope for a better tomorrow than the day was today and BELIEVE...we believe in our children and their strength. We will hope, we will pray and we will believe, in our children and the power of the lord.

We love you Danielle Marie~

18 months old & a Christmas Vacation!

2009-12-27T19:16:00.033-06:00

Our Family 2009 Today our baby girl is 18 months old. It is amazing to think how fast the time is literally 'flying' by. Danielle is doing great, we went in for her 18 mth check and things are looking good. Baby girl is weighing in at 18 pounds and 29 3/4 inches long. Still about the 3rd percentile which is good. We are working to feed her a little more baby food during the day and she is still on higher calorie baby formula. We have been doing Visual Therapy to strengthen her central vision to make it more fun for Danielle to see things in the center of her body while sitting and in a crawling stance. Danielle absolutely LOVES Visual Therapy and our therapist is AWESOME! It is such an amazing and rewarding experience seeing such a great person interact with our daughter, teach her new things and see the huge smile on Danielle's face every single week. It literally brings tears to our eyes every appointment and Danielle is making great progress, the lord sure has blessed our family with wonderful people in our lives who really want to help our daughter!

This Christmas our family decided to take a Christmas Vacation! It is SO cold and snowy this December so we figured what a better way to help rid of our cabin fever to head to the desert west to Arizona! We planed the trip with Grammie Martucci and really looked forward to it! We packed up and headed off for some fun in the sun! Danielle is a pro at flying now as this was her 3rd flight ever and this year! She relaxes and enjoys the ride!

The day we left was perfect. There was a major winter storm in the forecast, we were heading out of town just in the nick of time! It was also daddy's birthday! What a great gift for him, a trip on his special day and with his family! Well Grammie Martucci doesn't let a birthday go un-noticed, miles away or not, she had this birthday decor set up when we arrived to our resort in Scottsdale!

Happy Birthday honey & daddy!

We arrived late afternoon and Grammie couldn't wait to get her hands on Danielle. After all it had been since June since she had seen the kids....and boy they were SO excited to see her too!

Grammie had this yummy cake for daddy! It was a delicious chocolate bundt cake with cream cheese frosting, can you say..YUM-O!

Daddy opened his cards and gifts and we sang Happy Birthday, so much fun for daddy on his special day!

After we got all settled in Brad and I headed out for a birthday dinner while the kids stayed back at the condo with Grammie, Aunt Britni and Uncle Chase! They didn't miss us any, they got LOTS of loves from family!

Everyone got comfy in their pj's and relaxed the night away! Perfect for the first night of our Christmas Vacation!

The next morning Daddy and Chase got up bright and early in anticipation of their 9am T-time for a round of golf. We headed up to the mountains to drop them off. They played a beautiful course, rated 42 out of 100 courses by Golf Magazine. It was amazing!

We relaxed for the day and soaked up the sun! Mommy headed off to our favorite kids toy store, the Kidstop! This place is amazing and every toy you can think of for kids 0+ up to teenagers. The elf's were wrapping away on this day!

Danielle loves her Grammie so much. Every day she was smiles all day. It was SO nice to be able to take the kids out without having to bundle them up in hats, coats and mittens. The weather was just beautiful!

That evening we headed out to a sports park called Cracker Jacks. They had SO many fun activities, volleyball, a hitting range, miniature golf, go carts, indoor games, bungee, bumper boats and the list goes on and on. It was a great place to spend our evening!

Bumper boats were a hit. Danielle stayed back with Grammie and mommy so we didn't get wet. The others... well they had lots of laughs and we enjoyed 'laughing at them too'! HA! Daddy and Dylan as well as Aunt Britni got stuck under the waterfall and got....soaked!

After bumper boats we hit the miniature golf course and took our try at 18 holes. Uncle Chase came out on top this round!

We then headed off to the go-carts. Since the kids were too small to ride them, they stayed back with Grammie and got in some snuggles!

We headed home for some pizza and got warmed up. The night got a little chilly, but definitely warmer than the temps we left in Iowa! The next morning Daddy and Chase went out golfing again. Danielle took a morning nap with her favorite Aunt Britni. All snuggled in!

Our condo was so beautiful!

Daddy and Chase were quite the golfers this trip. We won't say how many balls daddy lost the 1st day....HA! But the second day he did much better. The guys had a great time on 2 beautiful courses!

It was Christmas Eve and that night we got dressed up a bit and headed out for a night of fun. Danielle was dressed in her adorable pink polka dot sweater dress. She looked adorable!

We first made a pit stop for a Christmas Eve train ride. The kids loved it and the sun was setting, the lights were on, it was a perfect Christmas Eve train ride!

We then headed to our favorite Mexican Restaurant in Arizona, Ajo Al's! They have the best mexican authentic cusine, delicious! Everyone was looking forward to dinner that evening. We had great food, great conversation all with great company. We arrived back at the condo and got the kids all snug in their pj's and bed all in anticipation for Santa's arrival the next morning. Grammie set up this 'Arizona style' Christmas tree for us and gifts galore!

And look, on Christmas morning we awoke to see that..Santa had found us! The kids sure must have been good this year, look at all of these presents miles away from home!

Christmas day was nice and relaxing. We cooked our own Christmas feast complete with, ham, potatoes, salad, veggies, lots of yummy appetizers and a delicious chocolate cake for desert. The weather was warm and the afternoon was spent in the hot tub for the adults and pool for the kids, what more could we ask for!

It was important we captured our Christmas Vacation memories in the way of a family photo. We took a few, they turned out great!

Our resort was gorgeous, this is the life!

Our family Christmas vacation, Scottsdale Arizona, 2009!

Our last night in Arizona, Grammie and I had the perfect idea to visit Rawhide! This was a favorite place of mine when I was a little girl and we would frequent Arizona. Our trip wasn't complete without a trip to Rawhide. We thought the kids would really enjoy it so we were off.

Rollin' Rollin, Rawhide!

We first spotted the 'laso a steer' and daddy jumped right in to give it a shot. It was harder than it looked but he managed to laso him in!

Everything in the town was all decorated for Christmas. It was wonderful.

The town is an old town complete with a jail and the town sheriff who will hunt you down if there is a warrant for your arrest. There are lots of stunts in the streets. We really enjoyed watching them!

Mommy and Daddy really had a great time too!

Arizona sunset!They have all sorts of activities for everyone, shows, comedy shows, horse drawn carriage rides, rock climbing wall and much much more.

Uncle Chase and daddy tried their shot at a few games.

And a few un-lucky visitors got a visit to the Rawhide jail!

We ventured around the town, in the shops and saloon all before our dinner reservation at the Steakhouse.

All decorated for Christmas complete with a 90ft Christmas tree! SO beautiful!

The Blacksmith shop was really neat. Everything was hand made and even personalized for you!

We headed off to the Steakhouse for dinner. Rattlesnake is something I have had before and thought that everyone should try eating it at dinner. We had a few nervous nelly's in the group, but everyone was a trooper and gave it a try, after all it tastes just like Chicken but its really....um...rattlesnake!

We had a great dinner complete with live music. The atmosphere is so fun and you can really tell that everyone there is really having a great time. Danielle took a snooze during dinner, but she still enjoyed all of the fun!

After dinner we headed back out to the town for some live music. The main stage had a great band, the band members looked for a few audience members to enjoy in the fun up on stage. Daddy, Dylan and Uncle Chase went up and played a few musical instruments. The rest of us enjoyed the warmth of the fire pit and listened to the sounds of the music!

We had a great time at Rawhide. Before we left we even roasted marshmellows around the campfire and made some delicious smores'! We headed back to the resort for some great conversation before getting tucked into bed, we had a flight to catch in the morning :(

Our family really enjoyed each other in the warmth of Arizona for Christmas this year. Although we missed our other family and friends at home for the holiday it was fun to 'escape' during the hustle and bustle of the holiday. We were together with the ones we love, the kids had a great time and it is fun being along side them when they travel to new places and experience new things. We look forward to another Christmas Vacation in the years to come. Danielle you can tell is a frequent flyer, she relaxed and caught a few zzzzz's on the flight home!

Merry Christmas sweet baby girl, thank you for being such a great traveler!~

The sights and sounds of Christmas...

2009-12-20T17:06:00.010-06:00

This past weekend we decided to take the kids out and enjoy the sights and sounds of Christmas.... We decked the kids out in their snugly pj's and blankets and headed out in search of our favorite Christmas light display. Brad and I started looking at Christmas lights 13 years ago when we first started dating. Brad would pick me up and we would head out, he would take me to his favorite spots and then we would venture to a few of my favorite spots. This year we were excited to continue this tradition with our own children! We stopped and got some Cappuccino for mom and dad and some cookies for Dylan, with our snacks in hand we were off to our first destination. We cranked up the Christmas music in the car, even daddy tapped his hand on his leg to the beat of his favorite Christmas songs!
We first stopped in Bowman Ridge. The whole neighborhood had a Candy Cane theme. It was beautiful seeing all of the tree's decorated in red and white lights, the trunks resembling the perfect candy cane.

The next stop was in Vinton. On the way to one of our favorite displays we saw this, a VW Beetle all decorated with lights, being pulled by reindeer. Another version of a pretty hip sleigh for Santa!

We arrived at our next destination. One of mommy's favorite spots. I remember when my Grandmother use to take me to Vinton almost every year to see this exact same display. It is amazing seeing all of the hard work this family puts into this display. We even cracked the window and turned down our radio, the display had music to go along with each theme. It was very very neat! The kids loved seeing a few of their favorite characters all lit up for Christmas!

The whole display is pretty amazing. We have to say it is probably our favorite! We were very happy to put a cash donation in the giraffe head for the family to be able to continue this very memorable display.

The next stop on our route was this beautiful home and yard all decorated just outside of Cedar Rapids.

All of the traditional lights mixed with the new LED lights made for a very bright, fun display.

Another stop on our destination had this beautiful drive thru over the driveway. All of the white lights were even more beautiful lit up next to the sparkling snow. And the red bows topped of this decoration!

This was our last stop. Literally a winter wonderland! It was beautiful. Strings of lights hanging from the tree's. The gazebo complete with Santa, all decked out for Christmas.

The sleigh and reindeer waiting for Santa. And music playing our most favorite Christmas carols.

The huge globes and inflatables were un-real. All of our favorite holiday characters!

The whole entire yard was covered with lights of some sort. Not a bare spot to be found. Another 'favorite' to make sure we keep on the map for next year!

We still had 2 more spots on our map but all of a sudden we noticed the chattering and giggling in the back seat had stopped. Danielle and Dylan were fast asleep. We decided to try one more 'must', Cedar Memorial where our beloved 1st son Dalton is laid to rest. Unfortunately the light display wasn't on this night. We will stop there again.

But after that we headed home. Brad and I both really enjoyed taking our children out on a beautiful winters night, all snug in the car, to continue a tradition that we started when we were so young and our love was just beginning 13 years ago. Now we have 2 little ones, an even bigger sign of our love for each other, to celebrate with. The true meanings of Christmas!~

Blizzard of 2009...

2009-12-09T21:40:00.014-06:00

BLIZZARD was the word of the day today! Our family enjoyed our first ever family SNOW day, and we enjoyed every minute of it! We started hearing at the beginning of the week what would be in store for us come Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday. 12+ inches of snow, Blizzard conditions, travel would not be advised and everything would close. Well old man winter sure dumped on us this time, the weather man was right.....we are snowed in! We awoke this morning to several inches of snow, the snow still falling and the wind howling outside. We knew we weren't making it out of our town today. The kids slept in and late in the morning daddy went out with the 4wheeler to plow us and the neighbors out. He had fun doing it!

For our snow day we stayed in our pj's all day long! The kids played and did whatever their little heart desired. We read books, giggled at Dylan entertaining us all day long, and Danielle had some floor time playing with a few of her favorite toys!

Both Brad and I had some nice one on one time with each of the kids. That is always nice getting in those individual snuggle times, it is important for the little ones too!

Even Skylar didn't want to stay outside for long today. The wind was howlingm the wind chills kept dropping the temps, -21 degrees they say for tonight. She isn't a crazy puppy, she wanted to be snuggled up inside after a short time in the first snow of this winter. Can't say we blame her on a day like today!

It didn't take long and the path that Brad made for Skylar blew in. The winds were blowing so hard today the branches hung down close to the ground . The nice clean driveway and sidewalk were covered over just a few hours later.

This afternoon both kids took a nap, mommy had a yummy smelling roast in the crock pot, the Christmas tree and garland lights were twinkling bright and mommy and daddy snuggled up on the couch to catch a good movie. These snow days are perfect for some R&R and not feeling a bit guilty for any of it!

The official snow fall total in Springville is 11.1 inches. It truly was the biggest snow storm that many can remember in the last 20 years. We sure hope this isn't a sign of what is to come for the rest of our winter! But we are sure all snuggled in tonight, staying warm on a burrrr....cold winters night!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

2009-12-06T14:06:00.032-06:00

A time to be thankful, a time to reflect and also a time to celebrate! This year our Thanksgiving was celebrated with great family. Uncle Chase came to stay with us for the whole week. The kids loved having him around. He got lots of snuggles and attention from our little ones. Thanksgiving morning started at home. Mommy in the kitchen cooking for our feast and daddy, Chase and the kids eating cinnamon rolls in front of the TV watching the Macy's day parade. It is hard to believe that 4 years ago mommy and daddy were there in NYC for the parade! Later in the day we went over to Aunt Ellie and Uncle Bill's house. Ellie of course had her home all fantastically decorated for the holiday. It was such a warm, comfortable and homey feeling. This was just one of my favorite centerpieces she had out for the kids table.

We tried to get a couple shots of the kids together, this one was the best one out of the ones we took and neither kid is looking at the camera!

Here is our smiley princess!

Showing her pearly whites. She has 4 teeth in fully and two on each side on top just poking thru plus one on the bottom left just poking thru. Poor little peanut is getting them all at one time!

She loves to roll all over the place on the floor. Belly to back and back to belly, she knows how to get around!

I love my Uncle Chase!

That Saturday after Thanksgiving we took Chase to the airport. It was a sad day as we said farewell, but knowing we will see him again in just a few short weeks made it a whole lot easier! Since the weather was beautiful that day we thought what a better way to enjoy the nice weather than to go out for our annual picking out a Christmas tree! We headed out to Wickiup Tree Hill in search of the perfect tree. The have SO many to choose from. Long needles, short needles, Frazier Fur's, and the list goes on...and on...

You can even have a teal colored tree if you want!

We let Dylan lead the way this year. He paused for a brief moment trying to decide which way to go, and then...he was off!

Danielle snuggled with mommy in the Baby Bjorn and we followed right along.

Dylan came across a little tree that he really wanted to bring home for him and the baby. It was a cute little thing. But we persuaded him to keep looking for a BIG tree!

And he found one. A really full one with a needle perfect for the star we would put on top. It seems we always mis-judge the size and then we get it home and have to cut some off the bottom. This year this one fits perfect. A little rounder than the ones in the past but it works, this is the perfect tree for our family this year!

Daddy cut the tree down and then we were down the hill to take it home.

Brad debated on having them come with the Gator to carry the tree for us. But then him and Dylan decided that they could just drag it down the hill.

We had them put the tree on the shaker to get all of the access needles off so it didn't make a complete mess once inside the house. They netted it for us and we were off to home to decorate our tree.

Thank you Wickiup Tree Hill for once again helping us in our family tradition of helping us to find the perfect Christmas tree. Maybe next year we will take a Gator ride in search of the perfect tree!

We also have had the fantastic opportunity recently to ride the 'Polar Express'! Mommy and Daddy purchased tickets over a month ago to ride the Polar Express train to the North Pole in Boone. We have anticipated this day ever since. Part of the experience is to dress the kids in their pj's for the train ride to the North Pole. We snuggled the kids in their pj's, slippers and blankets and we were off to Boone.

Danielle sure was excited to ride the train for her first time.

After a 2 1/2 hour car ride poor little peanut was fast asleep. Dreaming of the fun night yet to come!

We arrived in Boone to the Scenic Valley Line at about 5 pm, in time to pick up our tickets from the will call window and wait inside the Depot for the Conductor to tell us, 'All Aboard'!
6 PM departure was fast approaching. The kids waited patiently to board the train. Dylan had his Polar Express book tightly protected in his hands.

Brad was very very excited to be with the kids, taking them on their first train ride!

The train was very festively decorated for Christmas. This experience sure put our family in the Christmas spirit. Tis' the season for family traditions.

It was fun to see all of the kids dressed in their pj's, even some parents, the elves and conductors were dressed in their pj's too! We browsed up and down the train cars in search of which one we wanted to ride on.

And we picked one, 'the little train that could!'
We waited in line and the Conductor punched our tickets just like the do in the Polar Express movie. The Polar Express book and movie are a favorite of mommy and daddy's, and we felt like we were experiencing it in real life!

Our train car was all decorated for Christmas. Complete with garland strung with white lights all around the train car. Each train car had a 'Elf Story Reader' and a 'Helper Elf too'.

We got settled into our seats the the big train whistle blew and we were off, to the 'North Pole'! The Elf story reader introduced himself and began to read the Polar Express. We followed along with our book and we felt like we were a part of the story!

After the story was over the reader asked all of the little ones questions about the book. It was so cute, they would raise their hands to answer the questions. What a magical experience. Once we arrived at the North Pole we saw Santa's house on one side of the train and live reindeer on the other. The little ones were naming them one by one and picking out which one they all thought was Rudolph! When the train stopped our Elf handed out cookies...YUM!

Then the helpers came around and handed out Hot Chocolate, perfect for a cool winters night!

After the cookies and hot chocolate we heard a little rustle from outside our train car, the door opened and in came Santa Claus! HO HO HO, MERRY CHRISTMAS he boasted out loud! All of the kids cheered and Dylan said he spotted Elmo! Shortly he realized it was Santa Claus and was just as excited to see him. Santa came around and handed each of the kids a shiney Silver Bell, just like in the Polar Express book and movie. The sound of ringing bells filled our train car! Soon Santa waved farewell and we were on our way from the North Pole back to the train depot. On the ride back we read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' and even sang Christmas Caroles. The kids also paraded up and down the aisle so everyone could see their pj's! This was a very memorable experience for our family. It definitely put us in the Chrismas Spirit. Lots of memory's were made and we hope to do it again next year!

The kids slept the whole car ride home. Danielle was a little sad to have been woken up. She is a true princess complete with the pukered out lip when she is sad....

And the full fledge scream when she really isn't happy. But a nice warm bottle took care of that and soon after she was tucked in her bed and fast asleep.

We are very thankful for all of these wonderful memory's we are making this Holiday Season. We are thankful for each other, our beautiful children that complete our family. We can't wait for what else this Holiday Season has in store for us!

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

On another note. The day after Thanksgiving our family lost a wonderful Uncle. Uncle Tom Randklev passed away that Friday morning. He was a beloved Husband, Father, Grandfather, Brother, Uncle and Friend. He will be greatly missed by everyone that knew him. He had such a will for life. His sudden passing shocked everyone around him. His services were this week, the huge outpouring amount of love and support that came for him and the family was truly amazing. People waited for hours and hours to greet the family. We want to pass along one of the poems off of Tom's funeral card. Well said, to the point and a very important message:

Remember what a smile's for;

Show off those pearly teeth.

Try to make one friend a day,

That's not beyond your reach.

Try to find that spot of good

In each one that you know;

And live each day so you'll be missed,

When your time comes to go.

Try to see the other side;

Take time to understand.

Recollect you have a heart-

Include God in your plan.

Have some time for everyone,

And let your good side show.

And live each day, so you'll be missed,

When your time comes to go.

May you rest in peace Tom. May Linda, your children and grandchildren find comfort knowing you are with the lord. You are greatly missed.

In memory of Thomas Allan Randklev: 1943-2009~

Until next time. Keep the ones you love close to your heart. Don't take any day for granted as you never know what tomorrow will bring. Live each day as if it was your last. We love you Danielle, we are very thankful you are our daughter.~

Why we are thankful for you Danielle...thru Mommy's eyes.

2009-11-26T06:41:00.004-06:00

Danielle,
Your daddy and I wanted to tell you Happy Thanksgiving and how thankful we are for you. Sweetheart you are our miracle. Since the day I could feel your sweet little kicks in my belly I knew what a miracle you are. You have touched our lives since the day we met you. You are such a strong little girl. You do all sorts of new things every day that just amaze us. Your beautiful smile that lights up the room, your cute little giggle that warms our heart and your personality that is showing us what a fun girl you are. You are growing up right before our eyes sweetie. Mommy is so excited for a lifetime of fun memories with you!
We are thankful for everything about you, your will to live, your will to fight for everything you want, your ambition to keep going and keep trying every single day. You never give up, you keep going, you are always happy, you always have a beautiful smile on your face, you giggle at everything that makes you happy....for ALL of those things and for you being our sweet girl honey, we are THANKFUL! Thank you for making us better parents, better people, better as a whole. You have completed our family sweet one. For you honey, we are thankful. Your daddy and I want to wish you the most Happy Thanksgiving ever, thank you for being our daughter... thank you for being my little girl.~
Love,
Mommy

Happy Halloween....

2009-10-30T16:26:00.009-05:00

Halloween was very special for our family this year. For the first whole year our family was home together and we were able to dress both kids up in their costumes for some fun
Trick or Treating!

We started our Halloween Saturday by relaxing at home. Danielle and Daddy had some morning snuggle time while mom ventured to the doctor with Dylan to get his ears checked out. It was an ear infection but after some medication and more drops he is on the mend! Later in the morning we cheered on the Hawkeyes for our tradition of watching Saturday Hawkeye Football together. The game was pretty rough to start. Indiana was sure giving those Hawkeyes a run for their money. Grandpa Kinney was sending us text messages from the stands in IC to let us know how the crowd was handling the game. They weren't handling it well at all until the Hawkeyes turned their game around in the 4th Quarter, then the crowd was wild! Somehow the Hawkeyes turned the game around and got a big 'W' for another Hawkeye victory! They Hawks are 9-0 for the season and the first time in school history. This is very exciting for our family also as we are extreme Hawkeye Fans.

Danielle got in a couple naps during the day to get all rested up for our Halloween evening. Late in the afternoon we got the kids dressed in their costumes. Danielle as an 'Adorable' Witch and Dylan as a Dinosaur. We took some pics at home before venturing to our cousins, the Aarhus'. We met cousins, Morgan, Collin and Kyle and friend Savanah. Uncle Bill, Kris, Kim, Aunt Ellie, Andi, Tim and Friends Hal, Bob and Sheila. We were all celebrating Ellie's Halloween Birthday, Uncle Bill's Retirement from the Railroad and Halloween! The Aarhus house was very festive as it is every year. Complete with a fog machine to make the decor nice and eery for the trick or treaters!

Soon the kids were off for some trick or treating. Danielle stayed back with Daddy and the guys because it was very very chilly outside. Although she was bundled up quite a bit, we decided we best keep her in where it was nice and warm. Mommy, Ellie and Kim took Dylan out for some trick or treating. He was hilarious of course, really getting into trick or treating this year and making us adults laugh and laugh. Danielle was relaxing and watching football in her adorable costume. She was the cutest, 'Adorable' witch ever!

After trick or treating we ate lots of goodies and watched Ellie open her birthday gifts and ate cake and ice cream of course! Ellie's cake was amazing, all decorated for Halloween complete with spiders, pumpkins and fingers on top; it was awesome! Danielle took a little snooze but awoke just before Kris broke out his guitar and Hal his bongo drum and played some great tunes. Danielle loves music and loved watching everyone and smiling non-stop. Kris was taking requests from the big kids and 'The Climb', by Miley Cirus was the top request. Danielle loved to watch as everyone sang along. She is just awed by the older kids, she loves to watch them and smile at them with whatever they are doing. Now that she has lots of teeth, she sure shows off those pearly whites when she is happy, it is pretty cute!

Halloween at the Aarhus has become a family tradition for us and this year we are very excited that our kids were there and making the memory's with us. It is always fun to spend time with family and friends. Dylan and Danielle love to be around their cousins, they get lots of attention from them and the kids just soak it up. Mommy and Daddy really enjoyed dressing Danielle in her costume for the first time. We look forward to many more Halloween's spent trick or treating and with the ones we love.

Happy Halloween Danielle and Happy Halloween Birthday Aunt Ellie!~

Surgery day.... :(

2009-10-29T17:40:00.005-05:00

Danielle had another ear infection about 2 weeks ago. We last met with her Odo doctor in IC back in September, at that time her ears looked great. He asked though, that if she got another ear infection or started to get them this winter that we contact him to possibly think more about tubes. Well Danielle finished her antibiotic a week ago today, I was talking with Brad and we decided that we should contact her doctor in IC to tell him she had got another ear infection.

Upon contacting him he at first did not look back in her chart to see that she had subsequent ear infections. In my e-mail I reminded him that she has had 7 since she came home from the NICU, needless to say....too many. Upon review of her chart he decided that we should do tubes. He suggested we do them this week, Tuesday.....well nothing like short notice, right?! Well since she had just come off antibiotic we decided that it would be best because from Thursday until Tuesday there was less of a chance she would develop another ear infection in that time, versus waiting longer. So we did it.

Poor little thing. It was a fairly quick procedure. But it sure broke mommy and daddy's heart. This was 2 kiddo's with 2 surgery's in 2 weeks time....that equaled too much. Danielle was a trooper. Surgery meant no food the morning of and Danielle loves her breakfast! That is hard but she didn't complain one bit. We bundled her in some comfy pj's as they suggested and headed off for IC bright and early. Her surgery was at 8am. The Anesthesiologist carried Danielle back to the OR and mommy met her in recovery after the procedure. It went great, without a hitch. The nurse that brought her into recovery had her drinking Pedialite, I was shocked. Danielle isn't much for juice and I was totally floored that she was taking it, but she was a hungry girl. She wasn't acting groggy at all. The anesthesia they used was just a 'gas mask', and she tolerated it fine. Her ears were a little ouchy any time she would cough or hiccup but Tylenol helped the pain. We were back home around 10am and snuggled on the couch all day long.

Danielle and mommy don't often get one full morning and afternoon to snuggle but we did that day. It was perfect. We took a couple of snoozes and just giggled at each other. It was pretty amazing that literally right after surgery she was talking so much more. She even talked in the carseat on the way home from IC and she never does that. Wednesday both kids got to catch up on some much needed sleep and sleep in. It was a day of recovery and that extra day really helped Danielle.

Brad and I really hated to see our little girl go thru another surgery. We wanted to take that pain away from her, but deep down we knew she needed the tubes. 7 ear infections in just a year is way too many. We are hoping that this will help her especially going into winter. As we were leaving recovery her doctor came over to me and said, 'thank you for letting me help your daughter.' It just melted my heart. He is the same doctor that did Dylan's tubes also, we are so comfortable with him. Just after he made that comment I knew right then that we had made the right decision for Danielle.

Today Danielle is doing great. We are putting ear drops in her ears for the next few days to help them heal. She is a happy camper, she is talking so much and eating great and just being the sweetest little thing ever. We love you Danielle Marie, we are so proud of you and happy that your ears will be feeling much better now. Thank you lord for protecting our little girl.~

Home for 1 year....

2009-10-26T12:09:00.009-05:00

We did some celebrating this weekend with our little Danielle. Saturday marked one year ago that we welcomed our little princess home for the first time. Looking back, Brad and I remember what a glorious day it was. Being able to all be in the car for the first time as a family and bringing our little girl to the place we call home. Introducing Danielle to her surroundings was such a momentous day, one that we look back on and smile from ear to ear with a little tear in our eye, we remember back to the day our family became complete, and everyone was home!

This past week we have worked more on crawling. It is so adorable to see Danielle up on her hands and knees rocking from side to side shifting her weight back and forth and beginning to move one hand, then one leg, then the other hand, then the other leg. We are really enjoying seeing our little girl move towards these big milestones. Daddy was so proud of her last week, he was clapping and grinning from ear to ear. It sure was cute! We will still be working on this, but seeing her up and starting to feel what crawling is all about is very exciting! We are still working on sitting up in the Bumbo and she is liking it. She is sitting on the floor with hand support and we are working on getting her to lift up her head to figure that she needs to strengthen those mid section back muscles to pull her body up and figure out she can do it with out her hands down for support. We are getting there, and for all of these fun things and our little girl working so hard....we are thankful!

This weekend our friends the LeConte's came down from Wisconsin for a visit. We were so excited to see them and our kids were excited to see Drew and Allison again. We figured what a better way to continue our fall traditions then to venture with the LeConte's to the Pumpkin Patch. This was Danielle's first visit to the Pumpkin Patch and she really enjoyed herself.
We headed to Bloomsbury Farm, they offer so many fun things for the kids and adults alike. We took Danielle on her first hayrack ride and we saw the little pig races, the big kids ran around and did their own thing and we came home.....with 4 big round pumpkins to add to our Fall decor! We took advantage of the mild temperatures to enjoy each other, let the kids be kids and search for the perfect Pumpkins! We are excited for our Fall Family Traditions to continue...

Thank you Danielle for being the best little girl that any mommy and daddy could ask for. One year ago we brought you home. What joy you have brought to our lives. You have warmed our hearts and made our days brighter. Thank you for fighting and believing and never giving up. We love you sweetie!~

Due Date Birthday....

2009-10-11T20:43:00.009-05:00

That's right....today....October 11Th....1 year ago, was Danielle's due date. Our little princess of course decided she wanted to come about 15 weeks early! We still think of this date as momentous, although it isn't actually her birthday, it is the day, about the time we anticipated the arrival of our little girl.

Our First Family Picture!

We were always by her side, speaking life to her, singing to her.....

......believing in her!

We look at today as a moment in our past, that came and went with our beautiful daughter already here. What would have changed if she would have been born on her due date....nothing, we are fortunate, we have been blessed, she is our daughter, a fighter, a believer...our little miracle!

Look at her now, she's beautiful!

Danielle had a great week. She was finally able to get her flu shot. We resorted to our wonderful doctors resource in IC for this, as our local Ped office was still out. Such a relief to have that behind us, she got it, thank goodness! We also found out that Danielle does qualify for Synegis again this winter, the RSV 'preventative'. Her qualifying thru our insurance, was borderline, since she had been off oxygen since March. But she did, 5 doses starting in November. We will take it, no matter the cost, it will help protect her, that is what we want for our baby girl.

Danielle has gotten lots of snuggles this week. She has wanted extra snuggles, often letting us know vocally if she is not getting enough snuggles! She has been telling us lots of stories, especially in the mornings. She will squeal and giggle and just smile from ear to ear. Such a happy baby we have been blessed with. Dylan has been referring to her as, 'baby sister', or 'baby sissy', it is pretty cute. He is her protector, always wondering where she is, she needs to be in his sight for him to be content. She loves to watch him, she tries to grab at his hand when they are both sitting on mommy's lap reading books. We have been reading lots and lots of books, Dylan absolutely loves to read books, so what a great opportunity to read to Danielle also. Both kids will get on mommy's lap and we will read and read. Dylan follows along and Danielle is awed by the vibrant pictures and the sound of a soothing voice reading a book.

Thank you lord for blessing us with our precious baby girl. Danielle's due date is just a day for the doctor's to go by now for development, it's in the back of our mind but nothing like her birthday. the day she was born. The day she came into our lives and warmed our hearts. We have been blessed, she is a fighter a believer, we believe in her....we are blessed, life is grand.~

15 months old!

2009-09-30T20:50:00.004-05:00

It is so hard to believe that our little Danielle is 15 months old already. WOW, has the time flown by!

She had had a couple of follow-up appointments the past week. Last Monday we met with our Odo doctor in IC to talk about potential ear tubes for Danielle. Last winter and this Spring Danielle had several consecutive ear infections. Dr. Smith wanted to re-evaluate this month. Danielle did have 1 ear infection in August, but at this appointment her ears look great. They do a little more in depth ear exam than just our regular Pediatrician does. Since her ears looked so great he is going to hold off on tubes for now. If she starts to have them again this winter we will contact him right away and he will make a decision at that time. This was great news that Danielle's ears are looking good!

Yesterday Danielle had her 15 month checkup with our Pediatrician. The scale had her weighing in at 16 pounds 10 ounces....once again 1 full pound less than was IC had her weighing in at last week. SUCH a HUGE difference in scales. We believe her accurate weight is over 17 pounds. She is in 12-18 month clothes for a certain brand, 12 mth fits her perfect, so she is a growing girl. She is 27 3/4 inches long. This little girl has some long legs, that is fine by us! Her BMI is good and her weight is following the curve and her length is in the middle of the curve. Danielle has been eating baby food, Organic Stage 2, fruits and veggies and loving it! We are going to try and increase it and the doctor suggested for us to add a little olive oil for a few extra calories. She will still stay on high calorie formula for now. We will re-evaluate that in December at her 18 mth check.

Danielle is really wanting to crawl, in the worst way! The PT in IC will put her hand under Danielle's belly for a little stability and she is off. She puts her hands and legs up in the air but as soon as she starts to move her legs her arms go to her elbows and as soon as she moves her arms her legs stop moving. She will get it figured out soon. Danielle is sitting with minimal support, we are working on that. Depending on her mood point we can put her hands in the middle and she will sit supporting herself or we can sit with her between our legs and she does great, so she is almost there on this too! Danielle is talking and giggling like crazy! In the mornings she just babbles and babbles it is SO cute. Daddy can really get her giggling. No words yet, mostly vowels, at times we laugh though because it does sound like she says 'HI' in a high pitch voice.

Danielle has 5 teeth now. They have mostly all come in at the same time within the past month fully. She has her top 2 and her bottom 2 and on the top right there is an eye tooth peeking thru. She is looking really like a little toddler now versus just a baby. She doesn't smile so you can see the top toothers yet, so that makes it hard for mom and dad to get pics, but they are there! She sometimes chews her baby food, but no cheerios yet!

So a great week for checkups for our little munchkin. The doctors office was out of the Flu Vaccine so she will be getting it in IC next week. Mommy was pretty irritated considering she is what they call 'high risk' and we have had the appointment for over a month. We were trying to avoid taking her into a sickly doctors office more than 1 time, guess we should have done it with Dylan's last week. So instead of waiting for 2 1/2 weeks for our Pediatrician office to get it we will have it done in IC.

We are so proud of you Danielle. You are growing so big and getting stronger and stronger every day. This week your big brother Dylan started calling you 'baby sissy', it is very cute, other times he copy's us and calls you Danielle Marie, he sure loves you bunches! We believe in you pretty girl, you are our miracle daughter, and we love you SO much! Thank you lord for blessing us with our little girl.~

Labor Day Getaway and more!!!

2009-09-13T16:39:00.007-05:00

We have had a busy couple of weekends. Starting with Labor Day. Friday Danielle had several appointments in IC. All went excellent and we don't have to go back for months!!! The (s) on months is the most exciting thing ever! We are SO proud of baby girl. Friday night we celebrated our god son, Masen's birthday with him. He had a swimming party. Danielle was pretty exhaused from her big day. We were able to celebrate with Masen for a little bit and Dylan and Brad swam with the kids at the party. They had a great time.

Labor Day found our family in Des Moines!
We decided a few months back that we would take a family getaway to Des Moines for Labor Day. We met at Kim and Kris' house to get our car caravan together and we were off. The kids really had no idea where we were going but we knew they would have a blast. This was both Dylan and Danielle's first adventure to a 'theme park', Iowa style!

We first stopped at the Blank Park Zoo just outside Des Moines. We ate lunch at the Safari grill and then we were off to see the animals! Danielle was very excited to be outside. It was a beautiful day. We saw an amazing amount of really neat animals. We saw BIG snakes to start. They looked pretty intimidating as we peeked at them thru the hole in the cave. Then when we got to the viewing window and saw how LARGE they were, we were very happy to be on the other side of the glass. They had really neat jelly fish and coral as well. We stopped and watched the monkeys do some 'monkeying around'. They were really funny playing with each other and swinging all about. We took a moment and let the kids run under the misting elephant. Danielle calmly sat in the stroller as daddy, Collin and Morgan took a run thru the elephant spraying water from his trunk. It was a perfect amount of mist because it was a nice hot day. The kids didn't mind getting wet at all. We peeked on the Lions den. They were HUGE. One was sleeping as the other two were playing about and one was giving the other a bath. The Tortis' were mommy and daddy's favorite. Those things were HUGE. The one weighed in at over 510 pounds and was over 40 years old with a lifespan of 110 years, AMAZING! The zoo keeper was out starting to wake them up. She was giving them a little massage, soon their head would pop out of the shell and they were awake and ready to play.
The kids loved the play area. There was a little petting zoo and play area for the kids. There were big slides and swings. Collins and Morgan were very good at playing with the kids and taking their time with them and waiting for them. It was a wonderful time at the zoo.
We then ventured to our hotel, the Marriott by Jordan Creek and met up with Aunt Ellie. We had such a great hotel and rooms. We sure had a lot of fun. Eating pizza by the pool. The daddy's and kids swam and Mommy, Kim, Ellie and Danielle sat and laughed and laughed along side the pool. It was a great evening filled with lots of giggles and fun moments. After the pool we settled into our room and our jammies. We were excited for a fun Sunday ahead.
Sunday we woke up, had breakfast and headed to Adventureland for a day of fun! We arrived at Adventureland shortly before 11 and had a very busy day. First Kim had a great idea to take a tour of the park via the train. This way we knew where we wanted to venture to first. After the train ride Morgan and Collin broke Brad in right away taking him on the 'Falling Star'. Daddy was grinning from ear to ear. Brad and Dylan ventured on 'The Underground' next. Aunt Ellie, Kris and the kids went along and Kim, Danielle and I stayed back. Danielle ate some lunch and took a little snooze. The rest of us ate some lunch, the big kids went on, for some big kid rides, before venturing to Kokomo Kove. Kokomo Kove was a perfect spot for the parents to rest a little bit. Dylan got in his trunks and he was off to the little Kokomo Splash pad. Danielle soaked up a little sun and the daddy's and big kids went off for rides on the Tornado, Dragon and others. The sun was shining bright and we had many laughs all while relaxing.

After Kokomo Kove we took Dylan on a few more rides, ate some dinner and dessert before heading off to the Farris Wheel. Ellie, Brad and Dylan went for a ride on the big wheel. Then the daddy's had to try their hand at the games. Trying to win a BIG Herkey was the goal. Brad came back with a little Herkey and Kris got the BIG Herkey for Collin and Morgan. The little Herkey was just perfect because I don't think the big Herkey would have fit in the car with all of our stuff. Then Kim and I had to try our venture at the game. It was really hard, trying to throw the ball into this metal jug, all while laughing.....needless to say we won 2 more little Herkey's for the kids.

We closed Adventureland down shortly after 9 and headed back to the hotel for some more swimming and water fun. We got Danielle in her suit and she was ready to join in the fun. The water was perfect and she loved it. She loved to kick her legs like a little froggy and lay on her back against mommy and watch the kids having a blast around her. Daddy was jumping in making huge splashes with the Cannon Ball jumps. It was fun having Danielle join in the swimming fun with the rest of the family. We think she is going to be a little fishy just like her big brother. We can't wait for more water fun with the kids.

Sunday after Breakfast we headed off towards home with a few pit stops for shopping. We first stopped at Jordan Creek to visit a few choice stores that we don't have around here. Danielle was a shopping trooper with mommy and the boys did their own thing. Danielle told mommy that Pottery Barn kids was her favorite, she's got good taste!! Next we made a stop at the new Bass Pro Shop outside Des Moines. This place was awesome. Uncle Bucks Fish Bowl and Restaurant was super fun. You could eat lunch/ dinner all while taking a few moments to spruce up on your bowling game table side. The archery range was Brad's favorite. The place was packed but we will for sure be taking an afternoon to stop back there. Williamsburg Outlet Mall was our next stop after lunch before heading home. The kids sure made out there, getting clothes for this winter. We took advantage of the huge labor day savings and stocked up on fall and winter attire. The sales were amazing, up to 70% off at most places, we couldn't pass that up!
We had such a fun weekend with great family. Thank you Aunt Ellie and Aarhus' for the many laughs and great company on our adventure! We cleaned all of our cobb webs out with all of the laughing we did. Thank you Collin and Morgan for taking the time to be patient with the kids and for giving them lots of snuggle and play time!
This weekend we have had all kinds of fun. Saturday we celebrated Dylan's 3rd birthday with a party. It is hard to believe he is already going to be 3 on Tuesday. Danielle was all geard up for his Hawkeye Birthday party and she sported an Iowa outfit for her favorite team! We had an enormous amount of food and we watched football and relaxed. Dylan got some really fun gifts and Danielle had a great time watching the excitement around her. Danielle got some play time in with Lila, but she decided to pull Lila's hair....ouchy! Mommy and daddy felt really bad as Lila welled up with tears. It was an accident and Danielle was excited and took a grab, silly girl. After our family and friends left Danielle was exhausted. She was all partied out and excited for some floor time and snuggle time with mommy and daddy! Sunday found us at Lila's Christening at the Smith Pond. It was an absolutely beautiful morning and a beautiful setting for Lila's special day. We got Danielle all dressed up in her pink and brown dress and headed out to be a part of Lila's special day. Lila looked gorgeous in her Christening gown and matching hair band. She was a trooper surrounded by family and friends all there for her. Danielle was such a good girl. Soaking up the sun and breathing in the fresh air. Kirsten and Mike had a wonderful brunch catered in afterwards. We sat and laughed and enjoyed each other's company at a joyous celebration. After the Christening we ventured to Prairieburg to visit Great Grandma Holub for Grandparents day. She was very excited to see us and especially these beautiful Great Grand babies of hers. Danielle got in some snuggle time and play time with her Great Grandma. We had wonderful conversations and really enjoyed each other on a very special day. We really enjoy seeing Great Grandma and love surprising her with visits. She really enjoys it and we do too.
On the way home we stopped at the cemetery in Prairieburg to show the kids where Great Grandpa Holub is buried. Brad misses him terribly and it was such a beautiful afternoon to stop and remind him how much we and the kids love and miss him. Brad really wishes our kids could enjoy the fun times on the family farm as he did when he was young. We got a picture of the farm for Brad to tell the kids all about it. We could feel his love around us as daddy knelt down and told the kids what a wonderful man he was. He was one of daddy's favorites and he wants our children to know that although he is not here in person, his spirit lives on and he sure loves them also.
We have had a wonderful past couple weekends with our family and baby girl. We have been very blessed spending time with great family and friends. The weather has been beautiful. Such a great way to end the summer. We have soaked up the sun to warm our hearts and breathed in the fresh air to clear our minds. Thank you lord for blessing our family and we are so fortunate to have had such wonderful getaways this summer. For you lord, for our family and friends, for our health and happiness, we are SO grateful!~

Anniversary Surprise...friends...family & fun!

2009-08-24T21:44:00.022-05:00

Danielle has been a busy little girl these past few weeks. We have had some wonderful times with family, friends, and just the 4 of us!

Two weeks ago we hosted a Kinney Family Picnic at our house before Uncle Chase went back to college. We wanted to celebrate with him, one year behind him and starting his 2ND year at a new college. Point Park University is a Private Conservatory College in Pittsburgh, Chase is very excited to attend this year and our family wanted to Celebrate with him. The kids were very excited to spend the day with their aunt and uncle, many cousins and Grandpa as well. We had a little rain in the morning, but the afternoon turned beautiful and the sun was out to warm up our hearts and our spirits. It was such a wonderful gathering, we sure had quite the feast and the little ones had a lot of well deserved play time!!

Danielle got some snuggle time with Grandpa and Aunt Ellie both. Danielle loves snuggle time!

During the family picnic we had been looking to see if Danielle's teeth had finally fully poked thru. And not yet. She has been working on these two bottom teeth since February. Poor girl! The buds would get really swollen then the teeth would start to poke thru and go back down, they have done this probably 3 times now over the past 6 months. Well the next night, on Monday, mommy had a tank top on and Danielle was chewing on my shoulder when I felt a little something more than just gums on my skin. I looked and sure enough, just in 1 day BOTH of those little bottom teeth FINALLY poked thru! They are now 3/4 of the way thru, she looks just so grown up with teeth showing! Her top 2 teeth are ever so slightly starting to come thru as well. YAY!

Last weekend I had a talk with the kids and we decided to surprise Daddy with a fun weekend away for our 7 year Anniversary weekend. We decided to take Daddy to Chicago and to his first NFL game, the Bears vs. Giants! Daddy is a die hard Bears fan, our whole family is actually, and this was a perfect opportunity for our family to experience this 'first' together!

On Friday night after work I took Dylan into the bedroom to pretend to get him ready for his bath. He already had one of his Bears outfits on that he wore that day, I pinned a sign on him and send him out to show daddy. I followed close behind with the camera and got a couple of priceless shots. Daddy was shocked to say the least. At first he asked what the sign was, I told him to keep reading....he was SO stunned he then asked if it was a joke! When I told him it wasn't a joke, his eyes welled up with tears and he pulled us in for a family hug. He had never been surprised like this before and he was SO excited to attend his first NFL game and with his whole family.

We packed our bags, fed the kids, gave them baths, put them in their footed pj's and we were off for Chi-town! It was perfect because we left at the kids bedtime and they slept the whole way there. We arrived just before midnight, got snuggled into our beds and got a decent nights sleep before our very busy Saturday!

We had a fantastic breakfast before heading further down Michigan Ave for some fabulous shopping and fun tours! Our hotel was on Michigan Ave, but it was a bit of a walk to the shopping district where we wanted to be. Our hotel offered a shuttle that would take us there and it worked out perfect. It was a chilly day along the water and this shuttle saved our warmth for other things! We decided our first stop would be the John Hancock Observatory. Up 94 stories we went to 'Kiss The Sky'! We had the most fantastic view of the city of Chicago, the Lake, just about anything we could view for miles and miles.....it was AMAZING!

Danielle was such a trooper. We had her bundled in her stroller and she was a happy camper. Mommy & Daddy did some great shopping and even made a stop in two of Dylan's favorite stores, the kids sure made out in Nike Town and The Disney Store! Michigan Ave also has some fabulous restaurants that can't be passed up, we had to make a pass by The Cheesecake Factory for sure! After dining and shopping the kids were fast asleep in the stroller. Just in time for an afternoon nap before the big game. We hopped on the shuttle and back to the hotel for some afternoon snuggle time, what a perfect opportunity for mom and dad to have a little cat nap also before a busy evening ahead.

Saturday evening we all dressed in our Bears gear, had an excellent supper and headed off for our walk to Soldier Field. Down Michigan Ave, up the stairs, thru Grant Park, under the tunnel, past the Field Museum and we arrived at Soldier Field. Daddy's eyes got bigger and bigger the closer we got. It was such a rush to be walking with all of the hundreds of Bears Fans that joined us in the walk. Everyone was decked out in Blue and Orange, it was a fantastic sight to see.

We checked out the stadium, tried out some yummy snacks and watched an excellent game. The starters sure made for an exciting first quarter with some points on the board. Our seats were great. Danielle was all bundled up with mommy in the Baby Bjorn and a blanket over top. It was pretty chilly again with the Lake front breeze. We had ear plugs for the little ones but the noise never bothered. It was a very fun, exciting environment and they kids were great. Dylan loved watching the game and eating Nachos. What a memorable experience for our family. Daddy says we will for sure take the kids back for a game next year! Danielle and Dylan can hardly wait :)

The walk back to the hotel was a little interesting. Danielle was fast asleep in the Baby Bjorn and Dylan was fast asleep in daddy's arms. We were pooped out, followed the crowd to what we thought was Michigan Ave but the crowed we followed went the Lake shore Dr...opps! So it was back thru the park, then the sprinklers went off and everyone got wet! We made it back to Michigan Ave and our hotel. We got a good nights sleep before our last day in Chicago.

Sunday we woke up and after breakfast we ventured to the Shedd Aquarium. The Aquarium is a very fun place for kids and adults. There is so much to see and so much to interact with and do. We had a great time. Danielle enjoyed all of the colors, especially the coral reef's and the blue water watching the Beluga Whale. It was a beautiful Sunday and the sun was warm. Perfect for a view out to the lake.

After the aquarium we had lunch with Dana and Ryan Hargraves before our drive home. It was our first time seeing the Hargraves' since they moved back from over seas. They are also expecting their first baby, believed to be a girl, in 8 short weeks. The kids were excellent and got their belly's full also while the adults had some good laughs and great conversations getting all caught up!

We sure had a fantastic 'Surprise' weekend in Chicago. We will for sure be venturing there again next year. There is so much to do for adults and kids, there are so many fun things to see. Danielle had a great time, she was a very very good baby. She got some snuggle time in and loved looking around at all of the different sights and hearing lots of interesting sounds. It was a family fun weekend for the memory books.

This week poor Danielle started getting some bumps on her face. Our sitter called on Wednesday and mommy called the doctor thinking they may be hives, she had just tried a new baby food on Monday. From the description it was determined to be hives. The doctor recommended Benadryl and if the hives didn't get better. On Friday I picked Danielle up from daycare shortly before 11 and noticed that her ear had a lot of drainage and the right side of her face had a lot of new small red bumps that were not there that morning either. I decided I best call and get her into the doctor. The doctor determined poor thing has ear infection, which is what the bumps on her face were telling us. I had never heard that before....ever. She also has an icky eye which is caused by the ear infection also. So she is on an antibiotic, ear drops and cream for her skin bumps to prevent itching etc. Well Danielle went back to daycare that afternoon at 2, our sitter gave her her first dose of antibiotic then. When I picked her up at 5 almost half of the bumps on her face were gone. It was amazing how fast the antibiotic kicked in. Wonderful news that she is on the way to feeling better!

Saturday was the 'Man Shower' for Brandon Hahn. Brandon and Monica are expecting their first baby girl in January. We are SO excited for her and Danielle to be great girl friends. It will be fun with Baby girl Hahn, Danielle and Lila Eddins to all be within 18 months of each other.

So daddy attended the Man Shower while mommy had a relaxing afternoon home with Danielle and Dylan. Then we ventured out for a great dinner at Vito's with Kirsten and Lila before meeting up with the daddy's. Danielle was a trooper thru dinner, hardly making a peep. It was relaxing and perfect to get our belly's full before a fun night ahead.

We met up at the pond in Center Point and met up with the daddy's and other mommy's and kids. It was a fun night. The weather was a little chilly but clear skies. It sure was a great idea for a man shower for Brandon. They got a HUGE and I mean HUGE stack of diapers that will come in real handy!

Our family has been blessed with a summer of fun. We have been able to take the kids on many new adventures, and our adventures for the year sure aren't over yet! We look for many many more fun, family memories to be made. Here are a few more pics of Danielle from this summer's fun times we shared. Thank you lord for blessing us with our beautiful daughter. We love her SO much. She is our miracle baby girl.~

New Adventures...

2009-08-09T15:02:00.009-05:00

Little Danielle has had a busy past week or so! Last Friday we ventured to IC for a few follow-up apts, which included a routine MRI. It was a very LONG afternoon for mommy, daddy & Danielle, but well worth the trip and the wait. That is the price we are SO willing to pay for our baby girl to see the BEST doctors in the WORLD, and that is the truth!

Danielle did great during the MRI, it was only 5 short minutes and they took 2 sets of pics for the doctor to choose from. Then up to Neurosurgery we went. It was a very busy day for the clinic hence the long wait. But we made it back just in time to see the ARNP to have Danielle's shunt re-programed. We then saw her dr. he is the BEST, one of our favorites! So comforting and gentle and very genuine. He loves our baby girl and is very good at making sure he does not miss anything. He changed her shunt setting, which is totally routine, and asked us to come back in 5 days for a repeat MRI scan to make sure he was happy with the new setting. Mommy and daddy were totally fine with that, anything our baby girl needs.

After the long afternoon in IC we picked up Dylan and headed up to Madison, WI to meet our friends the LeConte's! We have such a wonderful connection with this family, as we met them approx. 3 years ago when our Dylan was neighbors with their little boy Drew in the UIHC NICU Bay 1 and Bay 2. These little miracles were neighbors for 3 months, fighting for each and every day with us. We talked to Tony and Emily on many occasions and we have talked many times thru each and every week since... Not only did we have so much in common with this family from the beginning, but since then Emily and I were on bedrest at the same time with our precious miracle little girls who were born just a month and a few days apart! Talk about people who know first hand, almost exactly what we have been thru! Our families have a life long connection and this weekend was a time to celebrate the miracle children the lord has given to us!

We met Friday late afternoon/evening in Madison at a wonderful hotel with a great water area/pool for the kids! We were a little worried on how the kids would act since it was getting close to bedtime. But after a fun time at the pool and then pizza by the pool, they were ready for more hours of fun! The parents did some catching up and of course chased these little ones all over! Danielle just relaxed in her stroller as she was pretty pooped out from a very long day. Allison and the boys were having a blast in the water!

Saturday we ventured to the Madison Zoo. This zoo was perfect for our little tykes! This zoo is purely run off donations only and they must have a huge fan base because this place was incredible! We saw many Lions....Tigers....& Bears...OH MY! The kids loved seeing the wide variety of animals. We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather, sunny, warm and a nice breeze from the lake....it was a perfect day!

After we saw all of the animals we stopped for a picnic lunch. The kids got all their bellys full and the parents did too! Then it was off to the Children's Play Area. This zoo offered a lot for little and big kids. The play area was SO neat. In the middle was a huge tree house that was open in the middle for the kids to climb up, little Drew made his way over 1/2 way up that ginormous tree! There were slides and climbing nets coming off all sides and bridges over to the small tree house play area for tots. The kids had a BLAST to say the least!

There was also a kids train ride and a beautiful carousel. The boys and daddy's took a fun train ride and Emily and her kids and Daddy & Dylan took a ride on the carousel. A fantastic finale to a fun day at the zoo!

Before we headed out the mommy's made a quick pitstop in the gift shop for a few souviners. The daddy's stayed back with the kids. Meanwhile a Press Photographer came over and asked Tony & Brad if he could take a few pics of the kids for a local publication. The daddy's agreed, here is a pic of the photographer taking Dylan's pic. And the LeConte kiddo's were fast asleep after a fun day at the zoo. Nap time was a must before our fun evening ahead. Dylan & Danielle napped with daddy back at the hotel!

That evening we dined at The Great Dane Pub & Brewery. We had a great dinner with some good food and great conversation! The kids were fully rested after their naps and the parents got some relaxing in also. After dinner we ventured back to the pool for some more water fun for the kids! Danielle and daddy had some fun swim time and mommy and Dylan bounced and swam in the pool! Dylan was a little leary of the water slide after a minor collision with daddy the night before. But it was a great time and everyone really enjoyed our weekend together!

It is just amazing looking back at what we share with the LeConte family. We now get together and celebrate the many trails and tribulations we have been thru with our little miracles. Many tears were shed and from that time we now share a unique friendship. We are excited to see them again very soon. We look forward to a lifetime of memories of our boys and girls spending fun times together! Thank you lord for blessing both of our families with our beautiful miracle babies!

New Toys...

2009-07-26T21:11:00.004-05:00

Danielle has had such a great week. Even though it was just her birthday, mommy & daddy found some new developmental toy's online that we couldn't pass up! We wish we would have found this website 2 years ago, it is awesome and has many different toys for kids of each age group and development. Here are a few pics of Danielle checking everything out!

We wanted Danielle to have her own play mat. Dylan has his own area of the living room with most of his toys on his own mat, so we wanted the same for Danielle. It has been a bit of a challenge for Dylan because these are all new toys, he is getting better as he goes over to touch something, he says' baby's toys'. We don't want him to think that she won't share but we then try and talk up his 'big boy toys'.

Danielle got to snuggle with Great Aunt Ellie this weekend and cousin Collin! Danielle loves them so much and it was fun for her to see them and get some snuggle/play time in! The kids love their company!

The kids are doing great, loving each other and each other's company. They make each other smile daily, it is great :) Danielle coo's at Dylan and he lays beside her on the play mat and talks to her and says 'baby so cute'. He actually said her name for the very first time last week also, it was adorable. We were talking to her saying 'Danielle Marie' and Dylan started mocking us, but he still prefers to call her 'baby'. These precious miracle babies are the light of our lives, we love them SO much, thank you lord for blessing our family!~

Happy 4th of July...

2009-07-02T15:01:00.020-05:00

Happy 4Th of July Danielle-

Danielle has had yet another busy week. She had her 1 year checkup this week at our local Pediatrician's office. Her visit went great. Danielle is now on the growth chart for a 1 year old. This is VERY exciting because this is for her actual age not her corrected age when she should have been born. Danielle is in the 3rd percentile for her height for a 1 year old. She is 27 inches long. She weighs 16 pounds 3 ounces. Danielle grew 1 full pound and 1 full inch since her last apt! This is wonderful news, that much of growth in length makes up for her weight. Danielle is 1 full inch longer than Dylan at 1 year and she is 1 pound less than Dylan was at 1 year, these kids sure are a lot alike! She is eating like a piggy and busy busy busy. We are still going to continue the 24 k/cal formula and baby food once a day with cereal, and we are going to try and increase the baby food as much as she allows. She is growing very well with what we are currently doing. Danielle is also getting 2 bottom teeth! They are FINALLY showing! Poor thing has been working on this one bottom tooth for 3 months now. It would go up and down and up and down and now it is finally visible and low and behold she also has another one right next to it! We are excited to finally be able to see these all of the time now, these poor toothers have been hard on baby girl.

Developmentally Danielle is also doing great. Rolling over, getting her hands under her and occasionally up on her knees. She is scooting forwards and backwards and also in a circle! She is a lot closer to sitting up, we are going to work on loosening up her hips a little to make it more comfortable for her to sit. But she will sit for a minute or 2 with her hands out in between her legs supporting herself. She is getting more and more in to toys. She loves to try and bat at things with her hands and grab onto toys that are in front of her. She is doing great! Daddy calls her his little 'sweet pea, or pumpkin pie'!

These are a couple of pictures from Father's Day! We had a great day with daddy and also with Great Grandma Holub as we celebrated her 80Th birthday with a party in Prairieburg that afternoon. In this picture Danielle was able to get some loves from Great Aunt Marge at the birthday party!

Happy 4Th of July baby girl! It is SO great to be at home this Holiday. Last year we celebrated with Danielle watching her thru the incubator praying for her to grow strong and telling her how much we believe in her.

And look at you this year baby girl! You sure have come so far! We love you so much and we continue to believe in you every single moment of every single day Danielle!

This weekend we decided at the last minute to postpone our trip to Chicago. We decided that with this busy holiday weekend, downtown Chicago probably wouldn't be the best for the kids. So we opted with the Water Park & a relaxing BBQ instead! Well it rained 3/4 of the day on Saturday so unfortunately we didn't make it to the water park. But we did have some great friends over for a fun BBQ on Saturday afternoon/evening! It was great to catch up and have the kids just relax. Mike, Kirsten & baby Lila, Monica & Brandon, Racquel & Scott came over for a BBQ and some R&R. We had a lot of belly laughs & the daddy's and guys did their version of catching up also. Danielle was a tuckered little girl that evening and conked out a little early.

Sunday was beautiful and we ventured out of the house! We had a picnic lunch at the park and then took the kids to the super fun play area. Danielle took a little snooze and Dylan ran around playing and going down every single slide many times! It was a beautiful day, we all needed some fresh air and a little vitamin D also. We came home and sat outside and had Popsicles, a great finish to a fun filled day! We sure had a great, relaxing weekend with great company! We can't wait until the next 4Th of July to Celebrate again. We are excited for all of the new things this next year will bring for Danielle. Walking and talking, next summer will be busy with these 2 little ones! Happy 4Th of July Danielle!~

It's a Celebration...

2009-06-28T15:08:00.021-05:00

Danielle had a wonderful Birthday Party Celebration with our family and closest friends! Here are a few pics from the day. It was a wonderful day; sunny and warm and the rain... thankfully stayed away! Danielle definitely was a tuckered out little girl by the time the night was over. Thank you to our family and friends who shared in this very special day with us! It was a very memorable Birthday Celebration for our baby girl!~

The decorating begins! Party theme; hot pink & lime green, fun summer colors!

Danielle & Great Grandma Martin. Danielle & Great Grandma Holub.

Danielle & Great Aunt Connie & Cousin Kenzie!

Party Outfit #1! Party Outfit #2!

Outfit #2 with the BIG bow! Danielle & Great Aunt Ellie!
The Birthday Girls Cake!

Danielle's very own special cake & party hat!

Blowing out the candles with daddy. It's my party & I'll cry if I want to!

Danielle only took a few bites of frosting so Dylan got to finish off the little cake.

All of these presents for baby girl, Dylan loved helping to open them.

It was a long fun filled day for Danielle. We are SO proud of our children!

Mommy & Danielle and Great Grandpa Kinney snuggling with the birthday girl.

Danielle got to have a birthday play date with our friends Mike & Kirsten's precious baby girl, Lila. Danielle & Lila had some bonding time of their own!

Danielle's 1st Birthday Pictures. She wasn't a happy camper for these pics, it had been a long, busy day. But we kept them anyway :)

Our Miracle is 1 year old today....

2009-06-25T10:42:00.009-05:00

Our little miracle princess is one year old today!!! WOW, has this past year went by SO fast. Just thinking back to last year at this time, how uncertain the future was for us....Deep down within our hearts we knew the future would bring great things for our family, it was the hope and optimism that we held on to, and look at our precious baby girl today! Danielle beat the odds, just like her big brother, she has shown many people her great strength and her will to live. It is with much hard work on her part and many prayers that Danielle is here with us today.

It is very easy to look at her, who is perfectly healthy and growing like crazy, and put in the back of your mind where she came from and what she has been thru to be with us now. But to us, we know, we do not take anything for granted. Last year we put our hearts once again in God's hands and asked him to take care of our baby girl, he did just that and more!! The power of prayer and the strength that we have had to give to go thru such a life changing experience is unimaginable. Some days we have no idea how we did it, with a baby already at home and one miles and miles away in the NICU fighting for each day, but we figured it out, we got thru it, all because we BELIEVE in our children....they are our precious miracles!

2008 brought many uncertainties for this state we live in and many uncertainties for our family. This pregnancy was the best surprise that we could have ever asked for to start out 2008. While it took a lot of work from daddy and self discipline from mommy to stay put, and support and understanding from mommys work and family who believed in us, it all worked out. Mommy was on bed rest at 15 weeks of pregnancy and that left daddy to do all of the work in the house plus take care of a 18 month old all while still recovering from a knee injury. He did it....we did it.....and we are so thankful that it worked out.

In June the Flood of 2008 devistated the City of Cedar Rapids. On June 11th, mommy had been at the doctor for a check-up and ultrasound. That morning mommy had the last appointment the office would have for days because of the flood. Thank the lord for that appointment and reassurance that baby Danielle was doing great! Then just 2 days later on Friday the 13th, the Cedar River Flooded almost 20 feet above Flood Stage, wiping out Downtown Cedar Rapids. Mercy Hospital Closed, St. Lukes Hospital was running on Generator Power and mommy & daddy kept praying that our baby girl would stay put inutero, especially during this difficult time. Mommy was 22 weeks pregnant, these next couple of weeks were critical. Dalton had been born at just under 20 weeks & Dylan at 23, we just wanted to get way past 23 weeks. Mommy was on full bed rest watching the devistating chain of events that led up to the crest of the river and the fall of the river as well. Danielle's Great Grandmother had to be evacuated from her home as she lived in the 500 year flood plain. Times were worrysome..... But Danielle, it was your countless kicks and rolling over that got mommy thru the day, knowing that you were comfy as could be inside mommy and the reassurance from Dr. Olson that things were going steady....

It was 2 weeks later at the checkup on Wednesday the 25th, that the doctor said things were holding steady. Relief once again, we were now past the 23 week mark that Dylan was born at, phew! But it was that evening that mommy slowly contracted. The next day mommy called the doctors office several times to explain what was going on, drink water...put your feet up and call us if things get worse, was the answer she got. The contractions went away for the whole day, until that night. Mommy called the on-call Dr, he said because I had just been 'checked' via exam just 24 hours before that things were fine....what we really didn't know is that they werent. Thru the night, contractions, slowly, at 5am the next morning, mommy woke daddy and said we need to go to the hospital now. Daddy was scared, frightned and had no words. Mommy started packing a few things together, daddy asked why mommy was packing... mommy told him she knew she was having this baby, far, far, too soon. We arrived at the hospital at 6:10 am and our precious daughter was born at 9:47am via c-section.

Our NICU experience started once again. And WOW was the NICU staff very surprised to see us again and less than 2 years after Dylan. We were just as surprised as them and also very scared. We knew we were in great hands, we had 2 dr's we were comfortable with, a NICU we were all too familar with and we had each others strength....to be their every waking minute for our baby girl. And we were there for her, we were finally able to reunite our family together at home on October 24th, 2008! It was such a joyous day for our family. We were united at home...at last, just the 4 of us. Working to protect our children....our family!

That bring us to today, Danielle is doing great. She will have her 1 year check-up next week. We are very anxious to see how much she weighs and how long she is. We are thinking she is somewhere around 16 1/2 pounds. She has an eye exam the week after that. Last time we got the clearance to not go back for another exam for 6 months, we are hoping and praying for at least that, this time. Danielle is eating like a little piggy! She takes 5-6 ounces of formula every 3-4 hours and eats Baby Cereal and Organic baby food every night. So far Sweet Peas are her favorite! She does not like to sit in her high chair though so we usually use the swing, and sometimes she doesn't even like that! She is quite the princess.... so at times we give in and hold her. She gets a lot of snuggling from mommy and daddy & even big brother Dylan too. Dylan loves to come over and give her many kisses throughout the day and also he loves to lay beside her on the floor and put his hands in her hair, it is precious. Danielle has been sleeping throughout the night for quite some time now, it has been 6 months at least. She goes to bed around 7pm and sleeps until daddy wakes her up at 5 for breakfast, on the weekends we let her sleep in but during the week she gets up to eat and then goes back to sleep until 7. She takes naps then most of the morning getting up usally 1-2 times to eat. Danielle LOVES her daycare and watching the kids throughout the day. We have the best sitter and both kids love her dearly. Danielle is a very happy girl, she does get her feelings hurt easily though, but she is seldom sad.

Danielle has shown many people exactly why you have to believe in miracles!!! To all of you parents out there, please hug your little ones a little tighter tonight and really thank the lord for your children...we are SO lucky to have them here with us. We had a long road ahead of us last June 27th, 2008. We traveled along that windy and sometimes bumpy road, but we never got off the beaten path, we never gave up and neither did Danielle. We will do what ever we need to do to protect our children, to keep them safe and healthy; thank you to those of you that support us in this!

Our little girl has fought so hard, been thru plenty and yet she is here with us today. We are SO blessed, SO thankful and SO grateful that the lord has chosen us to be parents, her parents. Look at you baby girl....from 1 pound 11 ounces and 13 1/2 inches long to now over 16 pounds and thriving more than ever, you are our miracle, our precious baby girl and we are oh, so thankful. We are proud of you and who you have become. Please baby girl, never give up, you have taught us many more life lessons than we thought we could ever learn. We are stronger people and parents because of you, thank you baby. You fill our lives and our hearts with un-ending love. You keep track of your brother Dylan and he keeps track of you, its great. We love you Danielle Marie Holub, our miracle little girl....we are so proud of you!~

Trip to PA....

2009-06-19T10:49:00.007-05:00

Last weekend we ventured for the kids' first trip to Pennsylvania. It was such a wonderful, memorable trip! We flew out of Moline and the trip to the airport was rough on Danielle. She screamed the whole way....poor thing really doesn't like her car seat. Funny part is the Dylan slept the whole time, even thru his baby sisters tears......not so funny part.....just before we arrived at the airport she threw up in her car seat. That really was not fun changing her clothes in the car and trying to hurry and clean the car seat so it wouldn't stink by the time we got to PA!

Check out this beautiful view from my moms backyard, it is such a serene sight and breathtaking view of the mountains and the city of Bloomsburg below....

Danielle was a good girl on the plane. Being this was the kids second full trip on an airplane I think they were a little more use to it than the first time. Mommy held her again in the Baby Bjorn, thank goodness for that and being able to have 2 hands free! We arrived in Philly at 11pm, Grammy & Tom were there to greet us and we were SO excited to see them. After a lot of stand still traffic we arrived to Grammies house at about 2am, got all the kids nestled in their beds, they were cashed out from an exhausting day.

Saturday morning brought some relaxation, it was great! Britni and her friend Hannah played with Dylan at the super nice town park and Grammy & mommy hung out and snuggled Danielle. It sure was a beautiful day and so nice to spend some time soaking up sun & fresh air. We then went and surprised Great Grandpa Phillips with our visit. It was great, we pulled up and they were sitting on the sun porch, I waved and I could read Barbara's lips right away, 'is that Amber?!' We got out and they were thrilled and even more thrilled when the kids got out. This was their first time meeting them in person and it was the most precious moment ever! Grandpa had a huge smile from ear to ear! There is nothing better than giving the ones you love a complete, total surprise visit, it was great :)

We relaxed with Grandpa and Barbara. Danielle was such a good girl. Great Grandpa could not believe how soft her little arms were and how big she is getting compared to the many pictures he has seen of her. The pictures do no justice he told us. Dylan found his most favorite toy, a bucket of clothes pins, funny he rather play with those than the numerous toys. When Danielle was being held he of course wanted to relax in HER car seat. Silly big brother!
Saturday night our cousins RaeAnn & Carrie came over and Carrie brought her 2 girls, Nola is 4 1/2 months old and Sayla is just 6 months older than Dylan. Her little boy Savich was camping with his Grandparents so we didn't get to see him. But it was an excellent visit. We got in some great laughs and conversation. Danielle had been asleep when they arrived but mommy went and got her so she could join in on the fun and meet her cousins! Dylan and Sayla had a blast playing together. He was so into following her around and copying what she would do, she would take a drink of her cup and then Dylan would do the same, it was adorable. Little Nola just coo'd and snuggled with her mommy & Danielle snuggled with me. It was an excellent evening, mommy spent many summers visiting them when she was little and it was great being able to get our kids together now!

Sunday morning was church with Grammy. Grammies congregation has prayed so hard and often for our kids thru the most happiest and scariest moments that we have had with them. The prayers continue....
We then visited Great Grandpa and Barbara again and told old stories and just watched the kids be kids. Dylan & Danielle even managed to take a nap on the sun porch. It's not too often that they nap together at the same time, it was pretty cute. That night Auntie Ciara came over to meet the kids and have dinner. Grandpa Tom (Thomas as Dylan calls him) made his famous Italian Chicken, it was excellent as always! Must be that Italian in him that makes it the best, mommy definitely has tried to duplicate it and no such luck yet...! After dinner it was outside for play time. Aunties Ciara & Britni played some soccer with Dylan and did bubbles. Danielle snuggled with mommy & Grammy. It was a beautiful evening, and once again we were able to enjoy the breathtaking views while enjoying the company of great family. Danielle fell asleep & Dylan was filthy from playing so hard, but before bath time we needed to try out the new Popsicle contraption Grammy & Tom got the kids, so we put an orange Popsicle in it and he could hardly keep his eyes open to eat it, but managed. Then it was bath time and off to bed to prepare for another fun day ahead!

Monday Barbara & Grandpa invited us over for a picnic lunch on the sun porch. It was SO yummy. Barbara is totally Ms. Susie Homemaker and everything was home made, the veggies were all fresh from the market & the lemonade fresh squeezed, perfect for a summer day! Danielle took a nice afternoon nap while we ate and visited. Dylan loved to play, once again with his bucket of clothes pins. Great Grandpa and Barbara each did some snuggling with Danielle. Precious moments that is for sure. Whether our family is miles and miles away or close to us at home it is always such cherished time when spent together. We were able to pull off such a heart warming surprise for the kids to see their Great Grandpa & Great Grammy Barbie, it surly warmed mommy's heart.
There is nothing as wonderful as catching up with family that we have not been able to see since before we had kids. The kids were such a surprise for them & we were more than happy to share them for the nice, long weekend :) We got home, Danielle didn't make a peep on the ride home, Dylan ate his lunch, we gave them baths, did laundry right away and got all settled in from a wonderful trip. Dylan still keeps asking for Grammy, Thomas & 'Bam', (he calls Britni Bam) it's hard to explain to him where they are, but we know we will see them again very soon!

Lord thank you for blessing our family with a perfect vacation. Thank you for protecting us in our travels. We look forward to seeing them again very soon :) It's very hard to believe that our precious baby girl will be 1 year old next weekend. We look forward to an excellent celebration for our little princess.~