Dentist Check-Ups

Third times a charm... or is it? We had an early morning dentist appointment for cleanings and xrays. This was Owen's third visit and in the past, he wasn't having it.

We always watch Kamryn get her teeth cleaned and then when it's Owen's turn, he screams while the dentist peeks in his mouth. Today was different. Owen wanted to be a "bid boy!" Kamryn was also a big girl by going back all by herself with the hygienist to get her teeth cleaned without me, while I went with Owen in another room. I sat on the chair with him while he got all his xrays. He bit down on all the bite wings .. while crying.. and then saying "I no like that!" He let the dentist clean his teeth, a little, and checked out each little chomper.

No Cavities!!!

Both kids have great dental hygiene and neither one has a cavity to boot. Kamryn has never had a cavity so I didn't expect she would now. She does have a bunch of loose teeth, so when those fall out, we can talk braces again. With all of Owen's vomiting, anesthesia (10 times now) and lack of oral eating.. I was expecting a horrible report! It turns out his teeth look great and the only thing we saw was that his roots in the upper front teeth have some trauma to them. Maybe from intubation. All that means is that they might fall out earlier than the rest. We'll continue to brush twice daily and hopefully continue with our lucky dental streak. I, unlike the rest of my family, have awful teeth. I had 10 cavities filled last May and tomorrow I have to have a crown replaced because it's 13 years old and has an overhang. Awesome. Better me than the kids.

Last Weekend in March

The weather is heating up in the desert and I feel like I'm grasping on to the last bit of spring! This weekend, I could have stayed outdoors all day and night. It was so gorgeous out! On Sunday, we ate on the patio at Kona Grill for lunch. Owen kicks it in his stroller and occasionally sits up for a french fry or bite of burger. Kamryn is a people watcher and we had explaining to do when a Man, dressed as a woman, sat by us at the bar. I would consider us pretty open and honest with our kids with just about anything. There are no big secrets and our kids are comfortable talking to us. I guess the topic of cross dressing has never come up.. it was an interesting conversation. Everyone around us was all a buzz over the 6' man in heels and a skin tight, hot-pink mini dress. It's just not something you see everyday around our parts. I'm sure people think the same of Owen.. you don't see a toddler with an oxygen tank everyday.. and he gets the doubletakes. We spent so much time on the patio because we didn't want to go home. We ended up giving up our table and heading to the park by our house. The kids wanted to feed the ducks and I just wanted to throw down a blanket and take a nap. Owen and I exercise at the park and feed the ducks a lot, but today we met a turtle. There were several little turtles coming up for a snack and the fish must've been pretty big to make such a splash when they came to the surface. Our kids broke off the tiniest pieces of bread to make it last. Owen loves his new shades and wears them everywhere! If the sun is bright he says "It too hoooottt.. I need dem."

Owen was exhausted at the end of our day. We ran to Sonic Happy Hour for some "diet doctor peppa" (soda of choice) and went home to crash.

This week is going to warm up to the 90's! Maybe I'll get some color on my pasty white legs and find time to do my least favorite thing.. bathing suit shopping.

Heart Mom's Night Out

When Owen was diagnosed with HLHS at his 22 week ultrasound, I hadn't heard of CHD's before. I didn't have anyone to talk to who understood. I started Googling all things HLHS and heart conditions. Through my many hours of searching, I found a blog. I was then led to another blog, then another. All stories about children with heart conditions, with good and heartbreaking outcomes. I started reaching out to families and started up our blog when I was in my last trimester of pregnancy.

After Owen was born, I knew of only one other HLHS kiddo in the valley. There were no local support groups or anyone to talk to. I joined Intermountain Healing Hearts in Salt Lake, where I lived for 10 years and am still a part of their group today. They are a bunch of amazing families and I can't wait to take a trip (sometime soon) to meet all our heart friends! I wished that they had something in Arizona like IHH, but there was nothing.

When Owen was going through his Glenn, a couple of heart moms made the leap and started Mended Little Hearts of Phoenix. It started out small and has grown so fast in the past three years! We have become close friends with several heart families that we have met through MLH and also HopeKids. Just recently, an Arizona Heart Mom Facebook group was started and I have met so many more amazing families through that.

Anneke had a genius idea a couple weeks back, and she started "Mom's Night Out!" What a fantastic idea!! Heart mom's getting together for a night out on the town. We all "get" each other and have so much in common. Last night was our first meet up and we had so much fun! We laughed, talked, and spent four hours at Chelsea's Kitchen.

Allison, Anneke, Carrol, Stacey -- (back) Michelle, Carrie, and Andrea (me)

We had so much fun that we decided to make this a monthly event. I am in charge of planning April's meet up and we're going to make it HUGE! Thanks for a fun night ladies!!

Owen is Back and This n' That

It only took six weeks, but Owen is back!! He had a heck of a time recovering from this surgery. I still remember one of the nurses in ICU coming in just a couple days post op and said "we need him up and walking!" Well, six weeks later, he's still not walking and I'm okay with it. He has been crawling up the stairs (as of Tue) and he is pulling to stand more often. He'll walk when he's good and ready!

The night time tossing while mumbling "leave me lone, and no ouchies" has stopped. Thank goodness. He is now sleeping restfully throughout the night. It also appears that his emotional side is back in check. The littlest thing would set him off and make him cry.. not a tantrum.. an emotional cry that tugged at my heart. I'm so glad that's over.

The best part of post op has been Owen's ability to communicate. He is talking so much!! We are still working with speech on his articulation issues, but he is doing so great. He's singing songs, counting to 10 (working on 20), knows many of his ABC's, and says the funniest things. I'm amazed at how fast he is catching up.

I just got off the phone with Stanford and she doesn't have exact dates yet for our next trip out. She had the MRI tentatively scheduled for Aug, but she's changing it to July for me. We have to wait another couple weeks for the cath lab docs to open up their schedules for July and then we'll get the Cath, MRI, and clinic visits scheduled for the same trip. If all goes well.. we'll be looking at an August Fontan. At the very least, we'll know what to expect post op.

Kamryn got her third quarter report card this week and she made Golden Scholar!! This was her first year in the gifted program and orchestra... we are so proud of her for being organized and responsible. There will be a special evening full of awards coming up in May to recognize all her hard work!

Tonight, I am going out for a girl's night. I haven't done this since I got pregnant with Owen and I totally deserve it! Owen is excited to have a special night with Daddy and Kam, while I have adult conversation with other moms that "get' what it's like to have a heart babe. So excited!

We have a fun weekend planned so I am off to tackle housework. Have a great weekend!

Cardiology Photo Shoot

A few weeks back, Owen was invited to be a part of a photo shoot for the Arizona pediatric cardiology clinic. When Owen was an infant, he spent a lot of time at Phoenix Children's Hospital and was part of the home monitoring for single ventricle patients. The time between the first two surgeries is a critical time as a 2.5mm shunt is providing oxygenated blood to their entire body. Through daily monitoring, weight checks, sat checks, ect.. it helps decrease the mortality rate during that fragile time. It landed us in PICU on several occasions, but we are so grateful for that monitoring program.

The NP in charge of the home monitoring program, set up a photo shoot today. They only had about 10 kids participate and Owen was honored they thought of him. They plan to use the photos from today in brochures for newly diagnosed patients, many in utero. They also hope to use some of the photos around the office and ditch the pictures of random child models that decorate the office now.

Everything started off great! We finally got to meet Zoe, whom we adore! Owen is doing his auto adjust on his oxygen, but this was the best shot before he booted Zoe out of his stroller. I guess I should be glad he's not allowing girls in his stroller just yet.
We tried to get a good shot of Grace, Owen and Zoe.. but they were just not having it. They were looking at the real photographer here, so that's more important than my picture. Don't they look thrilled.
Owen was happy as long as he had a balloon.... he wasn't too thrilled to sit on the step more than a whole 60 seconds though. There were a couple toddlers, both post Fontan, that were running all around. I can only hope.

After taking a bunch of individual shots, the photographer tried a group shot.. HA! This was all I could get. Owen's lips look about as blue as ever! Owen was about to lose it here..

And then he's done folks!! The tears.. oh the tears. He did go ahead and cheer up for some individual pictures. He made silly faces, showed the photographer his hip hop face and took a photo kissing Zoe on the head.

Then we tried to get another good shot of Owen and Zoe for Dr Stock... this is what we got!!
I can't wait to see the pictures the photographer got. I'm sure she had much better luck with the individual photos than with the group shot. There were babies crying, toddlers getting up and some were just in "get this over with" mode. I don't think I could ever be a professional photographer. I'll post the real pictures when we get them.

It was so great to meet new heart moms and hang out with old friends. We have a mom's night out coming up this weekend with just heart moms... I'm totally looking forward to it!

Owen's Reflections

The first day back after spring break was a success! We were only 15 minutes late for school because Kamryn left her backpack at home. We made it. That's all that matters. I suppose you could blame it on the rain we had today because it was just hard to get up and moving. Owen kept saying "look mom.. it's raiding!" The little guy rarely sees a drop of rain and never a snow flake, so the excitement over the downpour this morning was great!!

Getting Owen to brush his teeth is getting harder and less exciting. Still, it is something that has to be done twice a day, so I give Owen five minutes of "I DO IT!" and then it's my turn to step in. This is what I found Owen doing instead of brushing his teeth. Making faces in the mirror and painting with the toothpaste on the mirror. Apparently he didn't see me with the giant camera standing around the corner.. such a silly boy!!!

After five minutes of goofiness.. it was time to brush those pearly whites. He is not a fan, but he'll thank me one day. :)

Owen got a haircut tonight to get him all handsome for his photo shoot tomorrow. I'll update more on that tomorrow. I'm off to bed... cooking, cleaning, helping with homework (that is getting way too hard for me), and playing cars wears a mom out!!!

Bowling

Daddy took Friday off work to spend the last day of Spring break with us. The kids decided on bowling! We went for the early bird special of $.99 bowling before 11am. There was a small wait when we got there, so we decided to burn some money in the arcade.
Carson used to play ball, but I'm pretty sure Kamryn can hold her own. I can't get over how tall she looks in comparison to Carson.
Owen was so excited to play the "drive dame" with Daddy. Kamryn and I headed over to play "Deal or No Deal" and Kamryn banked a good amount of tickets. The kids then cashed those tickets in for a bag full of plastic toys that will end up in the trash by next weekend. Our buzzer beeped and it was time to bowl! We thought for sure that Owen would get up and use his legs a little.. it's bowling after all. He has just no strength in his legs and it's so hard to motivate him to get them moving again. Thankfully, the alley has these little ramps so we can roll him up in his stroller to play.
Kamryn played a good game and ended up in the mid 90s for an ending score.. not bad. We had so much fun!

Owen's newest crazy face. Whenever you ask him to look at the camera and smile, he makes a face. He's such a silly kid.

Carson attempted to take some pictures of me bowling but they look like colorful blurs. Ha. We bowled a good game.. and Carson barely tied my score in the very end with a strike. I still won. We only bowled one game before Owen was exhausted and we were all ready to eat.

We headed to Olive Garden for soup, salad and breadsticks. Yummy! The kids were perfect angels, the waitress was on her A game and we had a fantastic meal. We made it home just in time to take a short nap. I can't imagine a better way to wrap up Spring Break!!

Tomorrow we are back to school and routine. I spent 5 hours cleaning my house today. It is so clean! I just have to finish up the laundry and hit up the grocery store, then we'll be ready to start the week off right. It's going to be a busy one and we all know the first day back to school is a rough one.

A Day At The Zoo

We woke up bright and early to enjoy the morning at the zoo! Not only is it St Patty's day, but it's spring break and we knew the zoo would be crazy. After a quick breakfast at Paradise Bakery, we picked up Gigi and were on the road.
I am so happy my sister has a zoo membership, not only was it free, but we got to bypass the entrance lines. The kids always want to ride the carousel, so we get that out of the way first. While I was getting Owen situated, and Kel was getting Liv buckled on a zebra.. we heard a scream. Gigi fell off her cheetah while trying to get on... blood and bruises. Kelli took her to the ranger station for a band aid and they came back 15 minutes later with stuffed animals in tow. Sweet. Band aids fix everything.

We let the kids run around the play area since the weather was so nice. Kam and Gi took Liv up to the playhouse while Owen and I played in the sand. Look at those skinny legs! He lost all his muscle tone after this last surgery.. no wonder he's not walking.

Our zoo has some great little play areas and water splash pads. The animals are always sleeping or indoors, but at least there's something to do. When I picked up Gigi she had a backpack full of St Patrick's Day goodies... she wore this headband all day.

It was already getting hot at around 10, so we decided to take a train ride. My sister had free passes, so we climbed aboard. We got the whole zoo tour and saw tons of animals over the next 20 minutes. Owen was completely disinterested in the animals and just wanted to ride the "choo choo". We jumped off the train and we were sweating.. and it wasn't from exercise. It was pretty warm today. We grabbed a snowcone to split (one snowcone, 4 cups) and made our way to the exit.

I had the genius idea to pick up Carson at work and we were all going to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch. This turned out to be a HUGE mistake. We were sat right away and the kids were exhausted so they just colored. We got our drinks.. then waited. We ordered.. then waited.. and waited and waited. 90 minutes went by and we still had no food and the kids were in meltdown mode. It was March Madness so the place was crazy loud. I think the kids enjoyed it for the first hour, but they were hungry and so over it! Our waiter finally brought our food and it was totally messed up!!! Kelli had to leave because Livvy was past her meltdown point. The manager came by and after a little chat gave us gift cards to come back but didn't offer to get our food?! We were done and just walked out. Worst. Service. Ever.

We drove to In n' Out for burgers and shakes, dropped daddy off and made our way home. Owen puked as soon as walked in the door.. he said "too much!" I guess the day got to him... poor guy. He is sleeping now and I hope it's a long one.

I'm thinking tonight is a movie night... jammies, popcorn and movies. Yes!

Rango

Spring break continues and I am so spoiled by our long mornings kicking around. We have been lounging in our pjs, eating late breakfasts and taking our time getting ready. Next week is going to be a reality check of the worst kind when we have to get up and out of the house by 8.

This was Owen this morning after breakfast when he wanted to go "watch Buzz Woody in Mama's bed." He must have found every Snorty he owns and laid there for an entire hour while Kam and I got ready. Nevermind the pink binki.. it's our last one and he says we can throw it in the garbage... "later!" No word on when later will be, but it's going to be SOONER than later.

After an hour of solid housework, we met up with most the cousins at the movie theatre. All I can say about Rango is that it is one weird show. It was entertaining, but strange in so many ways. Owen stayed in his stroller in the handicapped section and slept the entire time, while the other kids sat a row in front of us chowing down on junk. Isn't that the best part of movies. We are looking forward to Summer Movie Fun this summer... 10 movies for $7.. and it sure helps beat the desert heat!

Bubs, a very sleepy Owen, Ry Ry, Dodder, Lutey, Bo Bo (sis), Tay Tay, Shugs, Em, and Lyse... these are not their real names, but the names that Owen has given them. :)

After the movie, we all decided to trash Larissa's house for dinner. The kids ran around the backyard while Justin started a backyard fire. Owen played "crash cars" with Dodder and we had a big ol spaghetti dinner. Not a bad evening that was planned last minute.

I am so happy that my kids get to grow up with their cousins such a huge part of their lives! Kamryn even gets to go to school with Connor, Ry and Tatum. I never had cousins around growing up, so I love that they have that.

Speaking of cousins.. tomorrow is zoo day with Liv and Gigi.

Spring Break... Relax

Spring break is finally here and we are having so much fun. I wish I could say we have been sleeping in, but my kids are early risers.

Yesterday, I took Kamryn on a little shopping spree. After cleaning out her closets and drawers, it turns out she has nothing that fits! All her shorts were booty short and her tops were teeny tiny. This was the first trip to Justice where she picked out every single thing!! I do have to give myself a little credit because everything she picked out was modest and age appropriate. She got some super cute clothes to get her through our hot summer months in the desert and I only wish they made them in my size.

We made our way to the pharmacy to pick up Owen's jugs of medications. Then came home and kicked our feet up. It was such a rough day. I am totally kidding.

I dropped Kamryn off at her best friend house so she could watch her violin recital and talk to her violin teacher. Kamryn is going to start private lessons soon. While she was at the recital, I raced home to catch pieces of the Bachelor finale and was disappointed in the ending. Not his pick, just the "we're not living happily ever after just yet" part. Kamryn got home just in time to watch the final rose with me and said "this is so NOT a love story."

That was the end of spring break day one.

Today is turning out to be much more relaxing, as if yesterday wasn't. We have all showered and are ready to tackle the world, but we haven't found the motivation to do that just yet. Ha.

Owen has PT in an hour and I'm trying to convince him to get up and walk. He has been up on his legs so much more this week and his muscles are just so weak. He has officially stopped puking, which makes us all a happier! Next week will be six weeks since surgery and he should be "healed". I can pick him up under his arms and offer more chest support when he's walking. That will help out a ton.

The rest of the day should consist of cleaning out closets, going grocery shopping and hitting up Sonic happy hour. Maybe we'll get to the later one. :)

The rest of the week is full of FUN busyness! We will enjoy this one down day for what it is.

Make-A-Wish Night!!

Owen's wish granters from Make-A-Wish came last night!! Leading up to the visit, I was trying to explain to Owen what a "wish" was and how much he deserved it. We filled out his Make-A-Wish coloring book together and we talked about all the different things he could wish for.. a room makeover, a playhouse, a ride in a helicopter, a family vacation, ect.

Every single time he would say "meet Mitey Mouse, meet Buzz Woody!" He had our trip to Disneyland from December stuck in his head. He wanted to ride the teacups and drive the tomorrowland cars, which he calls (Lightening Queen). Nothing we could have said or done would change his mind.

We looked online at Disneyland, Disneyworld and Disney Cruises. We talked about each one and he had his mind made up pretty early on, never to waver. This boy knows what he wants his wish to be.

Back to the wish granters. They showed up at 6pm with pizza, balloons and very cool goodies!! Owen got a new Buzz Lightyear and it is totally different than the one he already has. He also got a big box of Disney puzzles. Kamryn got movies, a MakeAWish Barbie, pencils, suckers, and Mad Gab travel game. While eating pizza and getting to know eachother, Owen had a pukefest. Poor Guy. After a quick cleanup and jammies, he settled in to play Wii with Kamryn while we filled out paperwork with the volunteers. We talked about Owen's wish and what it would entail. SO exciting!!

We're going to DISNEYWORLD!!!!

We had to give them a few choices of dates and I picked the first couple weeks in December. Owen is going to need time to heal up after the Fontan and all the Christmas fun will just add to the magic of the wish. We'll hopefully be staying at Give Kids the World, which is a whole village for only Make A Wish children and is a once in a lifetime opportunity! It's a pretty amazing place.

Owen's docs have to sign off on his wish and then we'll wait for official dates. I am hoping that the anticipation of his BIG trip will help him get through the testing and surgery coming up in July/August. He is so deserving and we can't wait to be a part of his wish coming true. The volunteers from Make A Wish were great and we appreciate them coming out last night. It was a great night!

Just Words

It's officially spring in the desert! Today we reached the high 80s and it felt fantastic! We broke out the shorts and rocked our pasty white legs. I took Owen to Target to buy some rash guards and swim trunks so that we can finally swim. Kamryn's last day of school is tomorrow and then it's Spring break!!! We are going to sleep in, make fruity drinks with umbrellas and sit by the pool. We will take afternoon naps, watch movies, and maybe do a little spring cleaning.

Owen is going to work on getting stronger and hopefully decide that his legs are meant for walking again. He is so weak!! He doesn't want to do a whole lot of physical exercise (who does) and so he gets upset and turns blue. Then we are done. Ugh.. it's such a setback. Physical therapy was a bust today, but it'll get better. On the bright side... he hasn't puked in THREE days!! I don't know if it's the Prevacid, or stopping the pain meds, but he's feeling better and he's almost back to his full 1400 calories. That is so exciting!!

We got a call from Owen's Make-A-Wish wish granters and they are coming on Saturday evening! Owen said "not Satday, NOW!" He is very excited, but probably not as excited as I am for him.

I told Kamryn she could ditch school tomorrow since it's a half day, and a field day at that. She said she can't miss school. Who's kid is this? I'm glad she takes school seriously but I really wanted to get a jump start on spring break. I guess I should let her make responsible choices.

I'm going to go fire up the grill and make some burgers with fruit and spinach salad. It is Spring after all.

Heart Charm and Owen Update

Carson surprised me for Valentine's Day by ordering this heart charm! I was excited when it finally came in the mail yesterday! I'm going to be wearing it all the time!

This is the HLHS charm created for the Mia Marrone Foundation. Mia lost her battle with HLHS way too soon and her mom had these charms designed to help raise money for HLHS. I love the idea. As you can see, Owen is feeling much better. Gone are the days where I can get him to just sit and smile at the camera. He's very into making faces these days. Owen is already on week 4 post op. I am amazed at how fast time has gone by. Owen is not back to "normal", but is getting better everyday. The puking continues but the Prevacid is helping a little. Owen isn't bearing any weight on his legs.. so much for walking. Ha. I know he can do more and I'll give him a couple more weeks (full recovery is six weeks) and then I can push him more. The other physical setback is that he won't transition from laying to sitting on his own. I don't know if this is an issue with him being sore in the sternum area, or just not wanting to put forth the effort. He says "help me sit up" and I put my hand on his back. He does the work from there.

Owen ditched the pain meds over the weekend. He has been so good about asking for pain meds and telling me when he doesn't need them. So he pretty much weaned himself and hasn't asked for any since Friday.

I am getting prepared to ditch the binki next. I told him he could have it through this surgery, but now that it's over.. the binki is going bye bye. I'm not about to hold onto it until his surgery in August. He can keep Snorty, the red bull, for comfort.

Potty training... he is SO ready!! I really want him up and moving in the next couple weeks and then potty training will start. He is really excited to go potty and ditch the diapers. Next week is spring break from school, so we might just get a good jump start on potty training. I'll have a longer post on just this later.

We haven't heard back from the Make-A-Wish volunteers yet. They cancelled last week due to illness and so we wait. I sat down with Owen and we went through his wish book. He knows exactly what he wants to wish for.. no question about it... and nothing will change his mind! :) I'll save that for his Make-A-Wish post. Please keep Josh and Peyton in your prayers.. they both had their Fontan this week and are doing so great!! Parker, Aly Jean, Mary Clare and Kyson will have their Fontans later this month. All our heart babies are growing up into amazing kids. Also keep Mia and Lindsay in your prayers. Mia is battling rejection like a champ and Lindsay is having tests today and rejection is just not an option! ;) I am just in awe of all these little miracles!

An Adoption Story

Four years ago.. my sister gave birth to Luke. She made the selfless decision to give him up for adoption. Luke was adopted by the most amazing couple and he is the center of their universe! My sister, Kelli, has changed her life in the past four years and is now a great wife and mother to Liv.

I won't go into the whole adoption story, because it isn't mine to tell, but everything fell into place as it was meant to. Luke is such a lucky boy to be surrounded by so many that love him!

Kelli and the adoptive family have an open adoption. A couple times a year, we all get together and have a little celebration! I know that my kids and Gigi look forward to seeing Luke and we always have such a great time together. Last night, we celebrated Luke's upcoming 4th birthday. He is in LOVE with Star Wars right now and my Dad picked out the best weapons ever!

Luke and Owen playing with light sabers.

Kelli (my sis), Luke, and Jen (his Mom) I set the camera on the tripod to try to get a picture.. out of 30.. this was the best!

We love that we can know Luke and be a part of his life. I think adoption is such a wonderful thing! We love you little buddy and can't wait to see you and your baby brother soon!! We hope you have the best Star Wars Birthday ever!!

Kamryn Update and a plan at Stanford

I had originally planned to post about Owen's Make-A-Wish today, but his wish granters had to cancel due to illness. It happens. I'm glad they cancelled instead of sharing the germs. They'll call to reschedule, hopefully next week! He has a few ideas up his sleeve, as I'm sure you can imagine what goes through the mind of a 3yr old boy.

Last night, at 8:30, we got a call from Stanford. They were calling to let me know that someone else would be calling me to set up Owen's cardiac MRI for August. That was all news to me. I called Dr. R's NP today and she said that Dr. R wants to give Owen six months to heal before doing pre-op testing for the Fontan (his next open heart surgery). We are being cautiously optimistic that everything between now and then will go smoothly. T0wards the end of July, Owen will have a cardiac cath and MRI scheduled at Stanford... both in one day.. one dose of anesthesia. He'll also have cardiology clinic with Dr R (cardiologist) and we'll talk to Dr Hanley (surgeon) to see if the Fontan is going to be successful. If not, we'll go to a Plan B, transplant. If surgery is an option and everything looks great, then we'll schedule surgery for the end of August.

They are working on coordinating the MRI lab and cath lab, cardiac anesthesiology and clinic appointments with Dr H. and Dr R... over a 2-3 day period. I should hear back in the next couple weeks with dates so I can start planning for that.

It's time to update on this little sugar! I can't believe there is only one more week of school until Spring Break. Fifth grade is disappearing! Kamryn loves school, but nothing beats a whole week off!! We usually visit several local museums and the zoo during spring break, but this year is seems like there are SO many germs going around. Maybe I am more sensitive to them this year with Owen being fresh out of surgery.
We'll spend a day at the movie, walking around the outdoor mall by our house and going out to lunch. Another day we'll probably do the zoo in the morning and then meet Daddy for lunch. We have a heated pool, so if we get the promised 80 degree weather, then we'll live in the pool the rest of the week. We're going to have a fun week!
After spring break, the school year kinda wraps up. Kamryn will have a week of AIMS testing, which she surprisingly enjoys! Golden Scholar night for all the students with perfect "A"s all year. Kamryn will have another Orchestra concert. Then school is pretty much out in mid May. I am sad that my little girl only has one more year of elementary. I know we have another year, but the thought of my baby girl going to Junior High scares me silly!!

Karate. Cheer. Dance. Violin. Volleyball. We're trying to figure out which one Kamryn wants to do next. She loves gaming (Ds, Wii, iPod), reading, writing (she's AMAZING), and art! She has so many talents and we love watching her experience new things. Owen looks up to her SO much and always wants to do exactly what she is doing... because of this.. he too is now a gaming junkie at 3!

Our little girl is growing up so fast!! We are getting ready to try out contacts and then if her baby teeth ever fall out... we'll move on to braces. She is beautiful, smart, funny, sweet, generous, kind hearted, and the best daughter that we could ever imagine! There is no question that she is also the best big sister to Owen. We don't know how we got so lucky! Love u sis.