Thanks We Give

We had a pretty great Thanksgiving dinner with family. We traveled to Houston and met up with Sarah, Richard, their kiddos and Richards brother and his family. It was so nice of them to invite us to their home. The meal was amazing!! And we seriously had about 12 pies. I made my fave chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake. I know it's not the traditional pumpkin or apple pie- but you can't say no to chocolate. Of course, I'm lame to not take any photos. But Robyn took this one of the two girls sharing some fruit with each other. How cute are they? Brielle and Evelyn.

The last few weeks have been pretty intense around here with sicknesses and painful teething. Poor Brielle had it rough for a full week. And when she has it rough- I have it rough. Two days of non stop crying, throwing herself in all directions. There was no way to soothe her. I felt terrible for her and I was beyond exhausted! Poor Arizona was ignored for most of the week- I don't think she minded since she got full access to the IPad. 

After many hours of screaming- from the pain of a sore throat and 4 molars coming in- she finally fell asleep in my arms. There is no rest for a momma. 

She's looking better and acting like a normal child again. She is a great joy when she's happy! 

When we moved from Atlanta to Dallas- we had to find a new cardiologist for Brielle. Our doctor in Atlanta- who performed the procedure on Brielle's heart referred us to Doctor Kane. He greeted us kindly when we arrived and we first did preliminary testing. Brielle got an ultrasound of her heart done- which can be a little complicated with a toddler. The sonographer lays her down in the bed and checks out her heart. It takes about 20 minutes if your kid is good and what feels like hours if she isn't. Thankfully, Brielle was amazing! I laid down next to her and she was able to watch Baby Einstein on a small screen. I wish I had Daniel take a picture of this, cause it was so cute. She placed her hands behind her head and it looked as if she was sunbathing. She was so relaxed and happy. It also helped that the bed was heated. 

When Doctor Kane walked in, Brielle took to him immediately. For some reason, she is really comfortable with men. She is has no hesitation to go up to a guy, but if it's woman, she squirms and buries her head in my lap. She sat so still and quiet while Doctor Kane listened to her heart and lungs.  The diagnosis at this visit was very much the same as with the last. She still has back flow of blood in her one valve. That one valve is working harder than it's neighbor but it's nothing too concerning now. When she grows, her heart grows too, and that is when we will see more need for strength in that valve. Doctor Kane predicts that we will need to come in sometime within 10-15 years to get to the valve opened up again. We are hopeful that by that time there won't be a need for open heart surgery and medical advancements are made to make it a non-surgical procedure. We are blessed with amazing doctors and a sweet girl who is continuing strong and shows zero signs of slowing down. This little one is active for sure. 

Our other active child, Arizona has become obsessed with puzzles. She loves to put the pieces together and I love watching her complete focus. She loves the movie Frozen and sings the songs at the top of her lungs. Arizona and I do school every day and she loves learning. I'm lucky she is a great student and even asks to do school. 

We have had a very warm Fall/Winter. A lot of our days are filled with the park and splashing in puddles. It's been so fun but we are hoping for a snowy Christmas when we get to Illinois. At this point- I don't think it'll happen.