Follow-Up Appointment

We had Brynn's follow up appointment with the cardiologist.  They did another extensive sonogram on her.  She did so well.  She laid so still for entire 20-30 minutes that the technician did the sonogram.

Brynn's still has a moderate size ventricular septal defect (VSD).  She now also has a moderately prominent muscle bundle in the right ventricle.  What does this mean?  There is a new muscle forming in the right ventricle of her heart, due to her VSD.  If this muscle continues to grow, it could eventually block the flow of blood back to her lungs.  What will they do?  The doctor said she is not ready for surgery yet.  He said that if the muscle bundle is removed too early, it could grow back.  He wants to continue her on Lasix and see us back in 6 months.  What would surgery look like?  He would go in and cut out the muscle and then patch the VSD.

We will continue to pray for our little girl's heart as well as the doctor's wisdom.  We didn't expect this news, but know that God is in control and will guide us all.

Art Show

Blake's school had an art show where they displayed art work from each student.

 

  Some of the gadgets he used on this piece were old Lego's and empty rolls of tape.

It was fun getting to see some of the things Blake has been working on in Art class.

Miss Independent & 4 Months

Brynn has very much been a two year old lately when it comes to wanting to be independent!

She wants to do everything herself!

Whether it be getting in her dinner chair, getting in and out of the car, putting on her socks/shoes, closing the refrigerator, bathing herself, or putting on her lotion...

She wants to do it ALL by herself!

On this particular night, she wanted to put her own pj's on.  She sat on her bed for 20 minutes working on getting the shirt on.  When I came to help her finish up the task, she didn't welcome the help because she wanted to do it! 

Today marks four months that Brynn has been in our family.  We can't believe it has been 4 months!

Happy 4 Months at home Brynn AiXin!!  We love you and your independent self to pieces!

Barrett's First Day

Barrett had his first day of his special speech class.  He goes two times per week, two hours per time.

 

 On his first day he cried because he wanted Mommy and Daddy.  He did much better on his second day!  He has a notebook with the sound of the week that we practice at home each night.

We are looking forward to seeing the progress he will make in this program!

Sunday Snapshot: {the track}

We enjoy going up to our local track in the evenings.

 Daddy runs, Mommy walks, and the kids play.

We normally don't let them on the playing field, but today I wanted the greenness of it in our pictures.

One of the favorite spots is the bleachers.

Something about the bleachers is so intriguing to them.

 They like to go up and then come back down, and repeat.

The sun was setting so they got a good view of their shadows.

After Daddy's jog, he showed the boys his skills on the high jump.  Let's just say he's not as young as he used to be :)  The boys thought it was fun and tried it out themselves.

We enjoyed the evening and the warmth the setting sun brought.

And of course Mommy had fun taking pictures of it all (yes, I got a picture of Daddy high jumping)!

New Gators hats and cheer outfit are compliments of Papa and Gram who just returned home from Florida!

Spring Break Day 5

Today we did nothing but PLAY!

 We played outside.

 
 

 We played inside.

 

We ended the night with pizza and ice cream when daddy got home from work.

We had a wonderfully refreshing Spring Break!

Spring Break Day 4

Today was St. Patty's Day, so we put our green on and headed to the park to meet our friends.

 My two little posers.

  The kids had a fun time playing together... and picking the occasional "pretty".

 Barrett was very serious about his digging.

 Poor Chaney, I think Barrett weighs as much as she does!

 They had a blast twisting around and pretending like they were tornadoes.

 5 little friends

 I love this picture.  They all happened to be looking at Brynn at the same time.  I love that she has a special place in her new friend's hearts! 

 I adore this picture!  It pretty much says it all.  5 smiling faces after a day at the park together!

Spring Break Day 3

We woke up on day 3 to the same yummy breakfast in our hotel.  We checked out of the hotel and headed to the zoo for the day.

 It was Brynn's first trip to a zoo.

 The weather was absolutely beautiful!

 Blake was so worried that going to the zoo meant HOT weather... bless his little Texas heart!

  Brynn had a blast, running, walking, and pointing at all the animals.

 Barrett's quote for the day was, " I don't see it".

 If the animal wasn't on it's feet, right in front of him, he had trouble spotting it.

 The zoo was a little crowded, but not too crowded to spoil the wonderful day!

 They enjoyed watching the little penguins swim past.

 We took the stroller, but everyone was way too excited about running from animal to animal to care about riding in it.

 I love this picture of Barrett and his daddy!  Barrett is at such an awkward fake smiling stage, I love that he has a genuine smile in this picture.

 I love the picnic area at this zoo.  You get a great view of the elephants and giraffes while you eat.

 Another fun animal we saw was our National Symbol, the Bald Eagle.

 Blake really wanted me to take his picture on these rocks.  He then wanted me to take one of him pretending like he was climbing them.  So I did.

 We went to the Bird Walkabout.  You can get sticks with bird seed on them.  Usually the birds will fly down and eat the seed off of your stick. 

 I guess they were happy staying at the top today since it was so crowded.

 We had a wonderful time!

We bid the zoo farewell and headed back home.

We had a wonderful mini-vacation and have new memories in the book as a family of 5!