Coffee Table -1, CJ - 0

Our poor little guy...took on the coffee table corner last night and lost.

It is looking worse today.

I'm sure this is the first of many injuries this little 3 year old will have.  The sad thing was is that we had just gotten home from a San Diego and he was so excited to play the Wii and tripped over the Wii Fit board right into the coffee table corner.



Gracie, the birthday girl!

Gracie's birthday is February 12th....but we started celebrating early.  On Friday, February 8th she was the birthday girl at her pre-school, which included being the calendar kid and a little birthday celebration at lunch time.  I asked her what treat she wanted to bring to share for her birthday and she requested chocolate chip cookies.  Here she is after she came home and started helping prepare for her birthday party the next day.  Can you tell what the "theme" is??

We started prepping for the party on Friday night 

Gracie's other request:  Pink sprinkled cupcakes 

Saturday, February 9th.  14 little cuties arrived.  This was gracie's first friend birthday party.  She invited all her little girlfriends from pre-school and church.  They are the darlingest little friends. 

First up: painting hello kitty masks

Hailey, Gracie, Georgia and Mia 

 

Mahea, Avery, Katelyn and Jenny Stewart and Elise 

Hannah, Leah and Emily 

Next, some games.  Naturally, pin-the-bow on Hello Kitty 

And then lunch, Gracie picked the menu:  Mac & Cheese, and Tortilla Chips with Cream Cheese 

On to the presents 

And then the cupcakes... 

Gracie decided to sport some lipgloss (a present) while blowing out her candles :)

The girls with their masks 

Her actual birthday morning...I made her blueberry muffins, a favorite 

She had dance class on her birthday 

Gracie and CJ helped make heart cookies on her birthday...the loved it...the kitchen was a disaster though :) 

And since daddy (Scott) was out of town Gracie opened her presents via Skype so he and his family in San Diego could watch.  Welcome to the 21st century :) 

She was especially excited for her pink lighted wheel razor scooter.  CJ has one in blue and now the two of them scooter around the house...all...day...long...!

Gracie girl...you are a joy - we love you more than you can ever know.  Thanks for lighting up our lives!!!



Sabrina's Surgery

Sabrina tore her ACL and partial tear on her meniscus in her left knee.  It happened while at soccer practice colliding with another player on November 1st.  It swelled up pretty good, but she has had many injuries so we figured it would go down.  It never did, and thus began the two month diagnosis process.  Went to the primary doctor, got xrays, saw the orthopedist.  Initial diagnosis...a knee sprain - go home, ice it, etc.  It started to feel better but then would give out randomly.  Went back to the orthopedist, decided she needed an MRI, which of course needs "insurance approval".  Had to wait 2 weeks for the approval.  Finally get the MRI and confirmed that she had the torn ACL.  We asked around for a good sports surgeon, found a great one in Fresno.  After a lot of jumping through hoops we had an appointment with the surgeon.  He saw her, reviewed the MRI, and confirmed the initial diagnosis.  Due to the Christmas holidays and Sabrina taking a trip to Texas we couldn't schedule the surgery until January 10th.
So surgery day came...we had to take her to Clovis Community Hospital by 5:15am that morning.  Here she is right before they wheeled her away.  Notice...she's happy and smiling :)

The surgery itself only took about 30 minutes but she was in recovery for about 1 hour after that until we could see her.  Shortly after the surgery was completed her Dr. (Simonian) met us to tell us how it went.  Below is the pictures of before and after.  Top left picture is the meniscus that he was able to repair.  You can see the blue and while sewn area.  The top right is her torn ACL and the bottom two pictures is the new ACL.

Here she is right after we were able to see her.  She could not keep her eyes open :)

Her leg was HUGE...so swollen!

She slept the whole car ride home and most of the day.

A couple days later, still in a good amount of pain but able to stay awake. 

She was not able to put any weight on it for the whole week.  Crutches anytime she had to go anywhere.  That got old really quick for her but she did a good job and mostly had a good attitude.  So thankful that my mom came home with me from Christmas break to help "babysit" Sabrina.  I think we were all happy when her week of immobility was over :)

One week later on January 17th we went back to the doctor for a follow up and to have the stitches and bandages removed.  She wears her brace night and day but can now walk on her leg without crutches.

 

Her Doctor/Surgeon was amazing.  He was kind and personable but so intelligent and skilled.  I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for him that he could help Sabrina to have a normal / pain free life again.  She is doing great.  Her only complaint is that she has lost about 20 lbs. of muscle weight which she will have to work really hard to get back.  She is doing physical therapy twice a week and should be able to have the brace removed in March at her 6 week check-up.

 



Christmas 2012

We went to San Diego for Christmas.  It was wonderful, all of my siblings except Mark and his family spent the night on Christmas Eve.  The kids loved it.  My sister and her family surprised everyone by coming from Colorado.  So thankful for everyone that made it special.

Christmas Eve, our ELF Skipski followed us...

Christmas Eve tradition...Luminarias and frosting cookies for Santa

My parents with ALL their grandkids

Christmas morning

 

The entire family after Christmas dinner

Some things I want to remember about this Christmas season that I was unable to document because my (new) camera wigged out and corrupted the memory card...or the memory card was already corrupted. I lost about 100 pictures.

We went to Cabrillo National Monument, the old lighthouse.  It was so cool and was seriously the most beautiful day EVER in San Diego.

We also went to La Jolla to see the seals and walk around downtown La Jolla.  Afterwards we drove up to Mt. Soledad and walked around.  The view is probably the best in all of San Diego, especially on a clear day.  You could see all the way to Downtown San Diego, up to Oceanside.  It was beautiful.  It has a wonderful tribute to the men and women who have served our country.

On New Years' Eve we went bowling with Scott's parents, his sister Pam and her family.  It was so fun, the cousins love spending time together.  After we went out to lunch at Denny's.  The evening we had Soupapalooza II, played minute-to-win-it (which was hilarious) and counted down east coast time.

Scott drove home to Visalia on the 1st and his Dad had a stroke on January 2nd.  It was awful.  It was deemed a moderate stroke and left him unable to speak in full sentences.  He recovered fairly well and went home from the hospital a few days later.  He has to learn how to pronounce words again but doesn't appear to have any severe physical repercussions.  Sabrina left for Texas (to see her dad) on the 3rd and came home on the 8th.

We drove back to Visalia on the 9th because she was having knee surgery on the 10th.  My mom came home with us to help in the recovery.