last Saturday ...

last Saturday we (Liam, Jericho, Annicka, Nana, and Mama) went to a very fun event ... a pancake breakfast and egg hunt! it was a lot of fun and it was nice that it was right here on base, I was a little worried I might not make the effort to get my kids to an egg hunt ... and I know, that's so NOT what Easter is about, but it's still a super fun thing for them! they had a ton of fun. they pictures are awful, I really need to pay better attention to my battery on the good camera - since I don't have a back up - I'm just trying to be thankful, though, that I have a back up camera, even if the photo quality is so bad in comparison. so, here's our pics from that morning!

can you feel the love?

too cute, he was acting out a scene - at least that's how it seemed ;-)

he was the only one who would cooperate for a pic with Mama

lovin on Nana

he's so darn cute!!!

Liam loved, and I mean LOVED, the egg hunt!
he was awesome and shaking the eggs was his favorite part,
I think - lol! later when it was the big kids turn he
was going around finding more (shh, he wasn't supposed to)!

yes, I forgot their buckets - duh!
but here's Liam with his treasure!
note my thumb sucking son in the background!!

then it was the big kids' turn

then Liam decided to run off from Nana - boy was
he having a ball, so I followed him and tried
to capture some of his joy to be free and run all over!

tallying up the treasures!

a little photo catch up...

so, this is gonna be quick ... but here's the photos that never made it to the blog! I have some more to add later, from our visit with my friend (though, admittedly, I didn't take any pics of her until the day she was leaving), but for now I'll leave you with these ...

here's cousin Katie getting to hold Zoey, she's pretty lucky because she got to hold her before any other kids (as in mine - lol - but yesterday Annicka did get to hold her for the first time)I try not to let this bother me, I'm terribly afraid he's going
to break this adorable swing ... but I don't want to
encourage a bad attitude towards Zoey either, so I sort of
let him get away with it!
... but isn't he just the cutest!

here's Zoey, all ready for her first
visit to the cardiologist!

who invented these binkies anyway???
these have got to be the ugliest pacifiers EVER!
which is, of course, why it's the only one
she can suck on without gagging (which I totally don't understand)
she got used to these ones in the hospital, so
to be a nice mama I bought her the pretty girl color ones
in an effort to not disturb what she's used to too much!
I much prefer NUK or MAM - but every time
I try those, she either just "plays" with it or she'll
start sucking and then gag - argh!

this was last week, the first time she sucked on it really good -
she sucked for over ten minutes on her own,
with no one having to hold it in!

how can you not love pajamas with bunny feet?!
my grandma sent this in a set, isn't she adorable in it!

so sweet, fast asleep

happy birthday!

not only is it exciting that Gary's brother and our neice have to visit for a couple days, but to really make it fun Katie turned nine on Sunday - so, for the first time ever - we got to celebrate her birthday with her! Here's a couple pics from our cupcake celebration:
isn't she beautiful!

her daddy and I were photographers, so we had to
celebrate from the other side of the kitchen counter!

check out Liam's face - LOVE it!!!

what a nice uncle - lol

update:

I'll probably have to pop back into this post as I remember things, but I thought I'd give a little update on miss Zoey! Very great news - she's gained weight! Since her appointment eight days ago, she gained ten ounces!!! She went from 9lbs. 3oz to 9lbs. 13oz! So, my mom and I obviously were not going crazy when we noticed her feeling heavier and looking a bit chunkier! Now that she's been home for over a week and I can say that she is an easy baby! She sleeps a LOT! She sleeps the majority of the day, waking for 15-30 minutes just a couple times, evenings are her more awake and needing attention time, then she sleeps all night! In fact, I've often skipped the diaper change at 3am and just tube her the milk after her medication, rather than trying to wake her and offer the bottle ... I figure sleep is important for her to grow and heal! Other than that, I always offer the bottle when she needs to eat, for the most part she comes no where near "nippling" the 600ml she needs per day, so I have to tube after nearly every feeding - except for those times when she really surprises us and finishes an entire bottle! She is on five "medications" (actually, that includes vitamins, iron, and sodium chloride - which I don't really think of as medicine) and has to be given those at four different times through the day (9,3,9,3) ... and starting tomorrow we're adding another, for reflux (I'm really hoping this will help with the gagging)! I can't say that Zoey has given us a social smile yet, but she does smile and it's absolutely adorable ... all the little faces she makes are adorable! She doesn't like to be wet or poopy, in fact this morning she woke up at 5:15am (not a usual happening) and kept fussing until I changed her, she fell back to sleep while still on the changing table ... she just wanted a dry diaper I guess! Here's a few photos from our first week home:

first time in her little swing

I didn't even know when I bought the monitor that you could
plug it into a tv, pretty cool!

here she is ready for our drive to L.A.

cuddles with Nana

Zoey today ...

so, today I went a little earlier than normal ... I just felt like I wanted to go see my little princess (and take up more milk) ... which worked out because the doctor/medical director was there and so we got to meet him - and then he wanted to talk with me as well. Here's the news: Zoey is going to be moving! She'll be taking her first helicopter ride (what a lucky little girl) tomorrow or the day after and heading to the NICU at UCLA hospital! The doc just feels that they've done all they can for her here and that things aren't improving the way they would have liked. Zoey is still breathing hard, the lasix yesterday did get some of the fluid off - so that's good ... but even the doc said he feels almost as though she's going "backwards". Another thing to pray for, you'll note in the pics that she has some rash - we're hoping it's just a heat rash AND they are putting cream on it and we need to pray that it doesn't "go systemic"! There's so much to say, I feel like I always forget bits and pieces ... just pray, pray, pray! We won't know at what point they'll do surgery ... but the doc today did tell us he expects that she'll be hospitalized until that point. Again, I want what's best for Zoey ... but I also feel very sad to be missing so much of these special early days when most mommies get to just dote on their little ones. I continue to pray wisdom for doctors, especially as now we'll be seeing all new ones ... I also pray to meet more wonderful nurses and still get to visit my baby whenever I want! Blessings to all!