Truly Blessed and BIG News

We are truly blessed. Our little angel is growing into a rather big little girl. We have so much to be thankful for and this little chunky monkey is amazing. She has been through so much and yet always seems to be smiling, laughing and bringing joy and smiles to everyone she meets. The Lord has blessed us with this miracle and we are so thankful and so very lucky.
Big News over the last week. Our big girl doesn't need her helmet anymore!! After a little over 5 weeks her head shape is now within the range of normal and she should continue to grow and develop normally now. We were so excited, no more weekly trips to Austin (grandmommy is a little bummed out though), no more stinky head (the helmet gets sweaty and no matter how much you clean it or Bella's head it still smells funky!)
Bigger News...as in the CHUNKSTER is 19lbs!! We went to the GI specialist today and she weighed 18lbs 15ozs!! Wow, to think 8 months ago she was a pound and a half and now the rollie pollie is huge! According to the GI specialist, she is more than healthy, I think that was a polite way of saying she's a chunk! He ordered some blood work and if it comes back clean we won't need to see him anymore!! At the office she was also measured and she's up to 24 3/4 inches, so she's starting to lengthen out too! She did cry up a storm when she had to have her blood drawn. It was so cute, she cried when they first pricked her then "fake cried" with some lip quivering and as soon as they pulled the needle out she stopped crying and I picked her up and she buried her head in my shoulder. She hugged me and then looked at me like...Daddy why would you let them do that?
Finally, we met with a pediatric surgeon and she looked at Bella's hernias and thinks they look very good. No need for surgery until next year after flu season. I was so happy, I called Machel who was ecstatic too! Machel is in Charlotesville this week for work, her first time back since we left with Bella in April. She went and visited the hospital and said hi to all of Bella's wonderful nurses and doctors.
So as you can see we truly are blessed, the Lord continues to watch over our little angel and we are so thankful for all the prayers and love that you all have given our baby girl. So here are some pictures of our little miracle, I am including a bunch, so enjoy!

Picture fun

There has been quite a bit of change lately. The big chunkster is doing so many new things and is becoming more inquisitive of her surroundings. She unfortunately is getting some teeth on the bottom, which sometimes causes her tremendous pain and brings about crying fits. She is also learning to hold her bottle!! We tried to feed her with a spoon for the first time and boy was that fun!! So enjoy all of the pictures because they tell the story better than I can!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RHYS!!!

Special birthday wishes go out to our preemie pal Rhys today as he celebrates his 1st year. We are so lucky to have the Outlaw family as part of our preemie family and are very excited for them today. (visit The OK Corral to the right)

Congratulations to Jodi and Tanner on the birth of their little girl Parker Wednesday evening.

And we want to hope that everything went well yesterday with Amanda's inducement. Her and Aaron's 2nd is a little girl Caroline. We hope the McDonald family is doing well.

We love all of you!!! Peace and God Bless!!!

Weekend of Firsts

Boy did we have fun this weekend. Isabella and I returned home Saturday evening from another whirl wind trip to Austin for her helmet appointment. Which went great by the way...she doesn't have to go back for TWO WEEKS and will probably be done when we go back...what a relief!!!

The firsts started when Daddy put her down to sleep last night in her CRIB in HER ROOM, instead of in her pack-n-play in our room. She slept there all night as well as through the night. What a big girl!!! And I was actually able to keep myself out of the full size bed that sits next to hers; however, I did get up four different times just to look at her even though the monitor was set up right next to my head. Her next first was church service this morning. Chris and I decided last night that it would be safe to venture off to church figuring with it being summer that the congregations would be small. As advised we would sneak in last and out first (although it didn't quite happen that way). We actually ended up going to two different services. The first service we went to was at 8am. We snuck in at 8:10am only to realize it appeared the service was half way over, so confused. We ducked out early as well, while they were doing communion, and decided to head over to another church we found for the 9am service. It was AWESOME!!! We totally enjoyed ourselves, met some great people, and Isabella was smiling up a storm at everyone that rushed to greet her. We will definitely go back next weekend; the nursery didn't even have any children in it and the Sitter has a granddaughter that was born 3 months premature, what are the odds!?! Obviously we want to keep Bella with us if possible so she can enjoy the service with us. And yet Bella had another first awaiting her once we got home. We got the precious girl all ready to go to the neighborhood pool that opened a couple of weeks ago. The Little Swimmers went on, the 70spf was spread thick, and the cute bathing suit made a perfect picture. Luckily there was only a couple down there and no kiddos. We tried the kiddy pool first but discovered that it was just too cold, she let us know that by screaming at us. So Chris checked the big pool and found it to be much warmer. I passed Bella over to Daddy and the fun began. She really liked it, especially when Daddy bobbed her up and down out of the water and I jumped with her. Here are some pictures of Bella's FIRSTS. Peace, love and many blessings to all.

Much Needed Update...

The little princess has grown so much, up to 17lbs! How is it possible that she constantly puts on weight? Well, it could be the endless desire for food and consistent napping. Like they say, a sleeping baby is a growing baby. On the medical front Bella seems to be doing pretty well. We have had a few bumps in the last couple of weeks. She made her first visit to the emergency room two weeks ago. Chris found what appeared to be a cut on her left pinky toe one morning. By that night the skin had started to break down. I panicked and through out the possibility that she may have been bit by a spider; we do live in West Texas where spiders, rodents, and wild critters are abundant. Fortunately the PA at the emergency room said that it wasn’t a spider bite, but that she most likely had a cut in between, in the webbing of, her toe that got infected. Bacitracian and oral antibiotic have cleared it right up. But the little princess has also been very congested for some time. We aren’t sure if it is related to teething accompanied by sinus drainage, if she has some type of allergy that is too early to determine, or the onset of asthma. Regardless the congestion sits in her nose, can give her a sour tummy, and often wakes her up with coughing and a fog horn nose. She has started breathing treatments that tend to give her some relief. Her helmet wearing is going fine. Her skin tends to be sensitive, another thing she inherited from mommy, and the material of the helmet irritates her at times (usually when she gets too hot). These days she doesn’t wear many clothes because the helmet tends to make her heat up and clothes only aggravate her temperature. Hence comes a ton of sweat, this she gets from daddy. On a very positive note, the staff at the helmet clinic thinks she is at 50% completion. It is crazy to see how much different her head shape looks already. They have this scary mannequin looking head mold of her when she first started. Not only is her head significantly larger, it is so much more round. They really are pleased with her progress. It would be great if by the time August rolled around she didn’t have to wear it any more.

Isabella got to spend five whole days with my mom this past week. Chris and I took a vacation to NYC, which wouldn’t have been possible had granmommy not agreed to watch the princess. Of course, granmommy had no objections to keeping her for a few days. Thank you mom for taking such good care of her, we really appreciate it. And another huge thank you to Mere, Paul, Andi and Parker for letting us crash Andi's birthday party while we were up north, we had a great time!

As always, all of Isabella's actions, mannerisms, expressions and obvious signs of independence continue to amaze us. She is absolutely stunning to look at and watch grow. I so enjoy watching her smile light up our hearts (and how she has Daddy wrapped around her little fingers). We hope all of you are doing well and continue to find many blessings in your life.

Ephesians 1:3
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.