Once there was a snowman. . .

We built a snowman back in February. Paige was so excited!

Christmas 2009

My friend Kara took these cute pictures of the girls for Christmas!

Last Halloween (October 2009)

Well, Peyton wasn't too happy when we took these pictures, so we got a lot like the one of her crying. But in the end she was happy as could be (I bribed her with my keys--works every time!). Now if I could just get a good picture of the two kids together. . . this was the best I could do.

Peyton's First Birthday (October 2009)

We took Peyton to Noodles for her first birthday dinner. We then had cupcakes at home, which she wasn't as into as I thought she would be. We're considering doing a maternity test--not likely that a child of mine doesn't have a sweet tooth!

Peyton's Pinkie

Last night around 7:30pm, Paige went to her room to grab a book. Peyton began crawling after her, and for some reason Paige closed the door to her room. Ryan heard Peyton scream first, so he went over to see what was wrong. He yelled for me to come, saying that Peyton's finger was stuck in the door. On the hinge side. The door was completely shut. Ryan was trying to open the door without further smashing her finger. He got it open enough, and I got her finger unstuck from the door. What I saw next I did not know was possible--not in my wildest imagination of injuries. Imagine a cartoon character who smashes his finger with a hammer, flattening it. Now you know what Peyton's finger looked like. Flat as a pancake and bent in all the wrong directions. I started screaming to Ryan, "What do we do?! What do we do?!" It looked so bad I couldn't even look at it anymore. Ryan, thinking clearly, said we should get everyone in the car and drive to the hospital. All I could think was that I hoped she wouldn't lose her finger. By the time we got to the hospital, her finger had begun to look like a finger again, though it was incredibly swollen and purple. She had stopped crying, so I was hoping she wasn't in too much pain. At the ER, they took an X-ray and discovered that it wasn't broken. They did see a tiny piece of bone that they think might have detached, but the Dr. said that would be absorbed and wouldn't cause any issues. We were surely relieved that it wasn't broken, and lucky that it didn't sever her finger. As you can see from the pictures, it is super swollen and on the underside she has a few blood blisters and dark bruising. Nevertheless, Peyton has been doing very well, hardly phased by the injury other than being a little careful with that finger when she crawls/plays.

In Loving Memory

On our last night in Utah I got a call from my brother that he had just taken my mom to the hospital. Although fine earlier that day (she had watched my sister's kids and helped around her house), that afternoon she had come down with flu-like symptoms and by that evening had become so lethargic it worried my brother. The Drs. determined that she had a bacterial infection and immediately began antibiotics. We were sure that with the antibiotic treatment she would recover. However, at 5:30 the next morning my cell phone rang. My brother informed me that it didn't look good and that we needed to come to Denver. We were supposed to fly to Milwaukee that night, so we changed the flight to get on the next plane to Denver. When we got there, my mom had been diagnosed with multiple organ failure. They were doing everything they could to try to rid her body of the infection, but it ultimately took her that evening (July 8th)--not much more than 24 hours from the onset of symptoms. My family and I were crushed. This was so sudden and unexpected. We had a beautiful service for her that was perfect, and we felt comfort in being surrounded by family and friends who showed their love and support. I am still dealing with the heartache, the longing, and the loss. I miss her so much it hurts, but it is getting better with time. She was a wonderful person--and an even better mom. Thanks, Mom, for the 28 years I had with you!

Utah Trip July 2009

We had such a good time in Utah over the 4th of July! We went to the Tracy Aviary--Paige loved seeing all the different birds. The best find, though, was a bird nest in a corner between the wall and the ceiling at the entrance to the restrooms. Not anything planned by the aviary--but the baby birds were so cute and we got to watch the mom come back to feed them. The dad was keeping watch the whole time a short distance away. They were so cute! Anyway, we also visited the dowtown library in Salt Lake since Paige LOVES libraries. She had so much fun--they had lots of nooks where kids could find a cozy spot to read. Peyton even perused the shelves! We also went to the Bee's game on the 4th for fireworks. The game went really long--13 innings! By the end we were all chanting in our heads: "somebody, anybody, win so we can finally watch the fireworks!" Amazingly, the girls did really well with all that waiting (it was 11pm before the fireworks started). Peyton stayed up the whole time--until the fireworks started and then she promptly fell asleep. I guess the stadium lights were bothering her more than the loud booms! We also got to spend time with many of Ryan's relatives, which we loved visiting. We wish we could see them more often!