Mia's Surgery

At the end of October Mia had eye surgery to keep her eyes from crossing. She was extremely nervous on the drive up to Primary's and in the waiting room. She cried a bit and who can blame her? Going under the knife is never a fun experience. But she was brave! She was still a little apprehensive in the exam room before we took her to pre-op. But once they gave her that sweet nectar that makes you feel good..she was a happy camper!
They strapped her in the wheelchair to get her to the waiting room since she soon lost all ability to stand or even talk. But she could still smile and she did a lot of that. She must have been feeling GROOVY.

Here's Daddy and Mia waiting to head down to the operating room. By now her nerves were completely gone and she was happy (and a bit drowsy).

The surgery was a huge success and Matt and I raced back as soon as we could to see her. They warned us that she would be a little irritable and she definitely fit that bill. That's one of the worst feelings to me, being under anesthesia and having to come to. You feel so tired and all you want is to keep sleeping. BUT NOOOO, every one's talking to you and asking you to wake up, and don't touch the part of your body that is killing you!

We went home after a couple of hours in recovery.

We've had a few check ups since then with her eye doctor and he is very pleased with the results. We are starting to lower her prescription on her glasses and hope to have her out of them sometime soon. Yay!!!

Projects

Mason has a mind that stays in constant motion. He's always thinking at a very quick pace and sometimes it leaves me a little in the dust. I've randomly taken pictures lately of some of his little projects he's done to fill his time.These are his Mario creations from his Lego's. Some of them fell apart before I thought to get a picture but you get the point.

These are his Mario creations he did out of Fun Fusion (you know those little plastic beads that you iron to melt them together). He also made a bunch of Club Penguin stuff and Pokemon with these too but I don't have a picture.

These are from his stint with yarn projects. Last winter his teacher taught them how to make scarfs which they worked on at home and at school. He made these with the leftover yarn.

Then my Mom taught him how to crochet and he went crazy making necklaces, bracelets and rings for all the women in his life. He even made a set for his new little cousin Isla who lives in NH.

He draws like crazy too. Someday soon I will scan in some of his pictures. Right now he's into drawing Diary of a Wimpy Kid characters and I have to admit, he's pretty dang good. He also took to writing the first chapter of what he thinks should happen next in that series. Take it from me, IT'S PRETTY IMPRESSIVE!!

Kiddie Kollege Indians

These were just too cute not to share (better late than never, right?). Madden and Eliza made these Indian digs at Kiddie Kollege. Most of the girls made Pilgrim girl hats and collars but in true Liza fashion, she chose the Indian boy. Oh I love this tom-girl and her raspy smokers voice!While Eliza was very proud of hers and was happy to participate in the photo op, Madden wanted nothing to do with it. I finally got him to put his stuff back on so I could get a picture. You'd never know he wasn't completely into it.
I hope these two stay the best of friends their whole lives! They're so fun to watch when they're together.

Thanksgiving (I'm a bit behind)

Thanksgiving 2010 was at the West Point City building again because it worked out so well last year. Most of my family was able to be there which is always a good time! The was pretty great as well. After we ate my Mom told the kids about the first Thanksgiving and shared a lot of little facts that I had never heard before. She always knows all the little things that make a story interesting.
Matt's Mom and his sister Holly came along with us. It was fun to have them there and give our kids a chance to spend some time with them.
We went home with full stomachs and good memories, so I'd say it was a big success!

Go Mia!!

This past Fall, Mia took 1st place in her grade for reflections. She was so excited about the trophy. It doesn't hurt that it's purple and sparkly. The theme was "Together We Can" and she drew a great picture of the earth with kids sitting all around it. In January we got to go to a special awards night for all the kids that went on to district. Mia was super excited but got really nervous when they called her name.
We are so proud of her and how well she did. She loves to participate in everything she can at school and winning an award for something was even better!

Way to go Mia! We are SO proud of you!!!!!!

Gracie's Tree

Last Christmas at the Festival of Trees my family decided to do a tree this year (2010) in honor of Grace. It was a large undertaking but after an amazing amount of kindness and donations from so many people and a TON of work, it turned out to be a very sweet labor of love. We decorated it with little girl shoes in black, pink, white and silver. Grace loved shoes so it seemed very fitting to include her personality into the tree. We had so many people who donated shoes and money. It wouldn't have been possible without them.

The morning of November 29th we headed down to the South Town Expo Center to set up and decorate the tree. It was such a great experience to be there with my parents and my sisters. It was a fun atmosphere and really touching to be among other people and hear the stories of what inspired each of their trees.

We never would have made it through without my Dad there to help us get the tree up so we could decorate it. The whole thing took the better part of the day.

We had Kelly Sansom take these pictures so we could make up Thank You cards to send to the MANY people who made this possible! What a great experience! Now that I've had a couple of months to recuperate, I can say I think I would actually do this again :) !!

M.I.A.

Around these parts MIA is a name but to most of the population it's an acronym for Missing In Action. Which is exactly what I've been to this sad little blog. After being informed NUMEROUS times by my little family that our blog needed a bit more attention, I'm finally consenting and getting caught up. Hang on tight cause here comes a whirlwind of updates :)

I know, it's about time!