Recent Happenings

Since my last post we have celebrated Leah's 1st birthday , I will try to post about that later . So much has been going on lately , Leah's last surgery will be tomorrow so please pray that everything goes ok and that she recovers quickly , I just hope that they will be able to control her pain better this time , I will try to update as soon as I can . I hated to leave town because my grandmother is very ill she is dying . Also I am pregnant 4 months to be exact , I am so excited about that but so depressed over my grandmother , will try to update soon ....

Dress Up Center

I didn't get finished making all the Christmas presents for the kids last year with all that I had going on but I did finish a few of them , I made some play drinks for their kitchen and one of their big gifts was the dress up center , it didn't exactly turn out the way I wanted it to but I used a small chest of drawers and the dresses drag the bottom when you hang them up but Riley didn't mind and it looked so cute in their room .

Anyone who wants to make one of these I would suggest maybe using a normal size chest of drawers or anything bigger , they have a lot of ideas on the Internet , some people put fabric on the inside and others put knobs on the outside to hang bracelets and necklaces , I left one drawer in the bottom for that stuff , also Hobby Lobby has a great selection of drawer knobs and pulls . If I find something bigger at a yard sale this summer I will probably make another one so it will grow with them .

The Greatest Gift

Please watch this video and get saved today , salvation is the greatest gift . Merry Christmas !

Our First Advent Calendars

Until I started reading blogs I never knew what an advent calendar was , since then I have wanted to make them but was always to busy , well this year I just made time to do it , one of them that is the other one was store bought .

Since I never had anything like this growing up I think I was more excited than the kids were about Dec. 1st rolling around , but after that first day Riley has been getting up every morning and just can't wait to see what she gets for that day , I think the calendars also help kids wait more patiently for Christmas . 

I am definitely going to make this a tradition at our house and hopefully will get to make some more next year .

These are just Christmas goodie containers I found these at ABC distributing  , my mom has an account there and sometimes I order stuff on her account but you get exactly 24 of these for around 5.95 .

I made this one out of toilet paper and paper towel rolls , I just put scrap booking paper around them and then  a cardboard bottom on each one , I think they look kind of like candles , you can also use fabric if you want to but I have a lot of scrap booking paper .

I also used ticket stubs and to my surprise Riley liked these better than candy or prizes , on the tickets I wrote things like Ice cream , board games with mom , her favorite was a trip to pet smart .

Leah's New Smile

I can't believe how long it's been since I last blogged , not only have I been busy , but a lot has been going on as well . To name a few we have moved , we needed something a little bigger and that took about a month just to get moved in and I got pregnant again but I had a miscarriage , before my body could heal from that I caught a bad virus and on top of that a uti , I am slowly getting back to normal .

Well it didn't take me long to fall in love with Leah's new smile , after they took her off the codeine which she was allergic to she did better each day , it didn't take her long at all to get used to the no no's but she never got used to sleeping in the car seat , and she has never nursed her bottle again but I'm not to concerned about that because they will be taking it away again for the next surgery , so it will be easier for her if she doesn't learn to take her bottle back .

I hope everybody had a happy thanksgiving , I didn't cook this year we ate at my moms , which reminds me Dallas is taking culinary , she has discovered that she loves to cook , I am glad , actually she is teaching me some things I didn't know , I wish I would have taken culinary , I didn't even know how to cook when I got married , the first few days we had chef boyardee . For thanksgiving Dallas made pumpkin bread , pumpkin cobbler and pecan pie , I was very impressed , I have to say she is very good :)

Here are some pictures that I took for Christmas cards this year ....I will post again soon !!!!

Surgery Update !!!

Sorry it took me so long to update but I am exhausted , the night before the surgery I woke Leah up this time for her bottle so she wouldn't be so hungry and I only got 2 or 3 hours sleep . The surgery went fine she was in there a little over 2 hours , I was shocked when I first saw her she looks so different , I was happy and sad at the same time , it will take me a little while to get use to her new face , she is so beautiful though , the surgeon did a great job , I love her little nose . Now that the latham is gone Leah is saying Mama every time she is feeling pain :( .

Well by that evening she was smiling at Riley and slinging her arms and slapping her No No's together but we didn't know that today was actually going to be her worst day , when we got up this morning her face was swelled and she wouldn't open her mouth to take her pedialyte , her diaper was not very wet either so they put her back on I.V. and they were giving her to much pain medication so right now everything is fine , they said the swelling in her eyes is probably because they had to do so much to her nose , because her cleft was so different . Well I will try to update more later , here are some pics ......

 This was right after the surgery.

This was the second day that her face started to swell.

This is her cleft repair bear they gave her , see the stitches on it's lip ? I thought this was so cute .

This is the bottle we have to use , so far it hasn't been that bad , I think she may get use to it once she starts feeling better .

Leah's Next Surgery

Leah's next surgery is in the morning , this is her lip and nose repair she will be in the hospital for three days . We will be here for a week , I don't know how this surgery will be , it's going to be rough , I have to feed Leah through a bottle with a tube in it and also she has to wear something called No No's that will keep her from touching her face , she is going to hate that :( and also she has to sleep in her car seat , she can't lay flat because her face will swell , and this is for 2 weeks , it's going to be a long 2 weeks . Leah has been so happy tonight , playing and laughing , it makes me want to cry knowing what she is going to go through tomorrow , well I will keep everyone posted , please pray for Leah .