Spring is here!

We have been spending lots of time together outside these past few days....Celia has been asking almost daily "is it Spring?" We've been watching the hydrangea grow little leaves and the cammelia is errupting. Its been great. So most days we hang out playing with sidewalk chalk and blowing bubbles. Here are the girls on the official first day of spring....

Celia's mastered faces; here is "Bennett"

dipping into the bubble juice....

surrounded in bubble love

just so cute and waiting for more

"I want one this big daddy!"

Snap and Clap day....

Ahh yes it was snap and clap day at Celia's ballet lessons this past Monday. Dave's been "out" on reading week so he was able to join Bennett and me as we watched what Celia has been learning from Mrs. Elaine. It was adorable! Each week I usually just catch a glimpse of the action via the 8" monitor hung precariously above the door and from time to time notice Celia watching some parts but over the last 8 weeks or so she's become quicker to engage with the other little ballerinas. This week was definitely her best. Maybe the joy of showcasing her talent to her beaming parents and jealous little sister...but whatever it was she loved it! Here are a few pictures to share

This is stretching and warming up your legs part....often times pretending to be butterflies flapping their wings

Here are the girls practicing Entrachat (?) when they jump from first to second position...They actually jump to "Who let the dogs out" . Quite funny....

Look at this precious girl focusing....

Here she is relaxing after class on the bar...you can see her handprints just below her to the right

Here's a close up of her handprints...so cute!

Sweet Celia

Most of you know our sweet Celia has had her share of medical issues and have been so kind to encourage us through them. We're about to gear up again for more so we thought we'd give a quick update on her health. Her spleen-size has stabilized but is still much too large and no longer is the fear the actual size of her spleen but why it is enlarged. This last appointment was really hard for me as well as Celia because she now completely understands that she will have bloodwork and what that means way before we get to the hospital. Our family rule of thumb is if blood comes out---Chic-fil-a goes in. So when she was being restrained for her bloodwork she was screaming "I don't want to go to Chic-fil-a!" Sweet Celia recovered relatively quickly and did in fact enjoy some CFA goodness; it was just hard to watch her emotions spike. We really respect her hemotologist and he's asked to get together with her nephrologist and bring in a geneticist in the next month to review her tests and brainstorm.

Kidney-wise she's still followed and just recently had another ultrasound. Her nephrocalcinosis has also stabilized but this coming week we will do a 24 hour urine collection. Now thankfully Celia is potty trained during her waking hours so that won't be so bad but Dave and I are scratching our heads about how to handle nighttime. She's been bagged before and its tricky and often does not work so please pray for easy collection and comfort for Celia. We might wake her regularly through out the night for her try.....as to avoid the bag.....we'll see...

And last but not least she is starting Physical Therapy again. She tested in the 19th % for kids her age for gross motor skills and some other things as well. Here she is at our place trying to get her psyched about the tricycle. Its a battle of wills to make her play on things where she doesn't feel safe or in control of her body but hopefully Miss Julie will help us in that area. So all in all....that's where we are. Thanks for all your support and prayers...

here she is relaxing after a serious workout....

Doctor Suess Spin-off

Saturday morning we enjoyed a St. Patrick's breakfast of green pancakes!

A date for Ben

Bennett held hands last week for the first time with a little boy! Mr. Owen Purdy (a younger man, turning 1 tomorrow) came to play last week and we went on a stroller ride. How sweet is this picture!

this little piggy....

Ben can wear pigtails! Yeah! Her stick straight hair goes straight out. It's hilarious! So cute little Ben!

Another Saturday, Another baby

Well the Saturday after Nancy was born we had another reason to celebrate! Our good friends, the Waters, welcomed their newest baby. He's precious, Samuel Benjamin Waters. Apparently Danielle is a champ because her contractions started at 6:30am and after dropping Jack and Kayla here they went to the Hospital. She was 7cm already, too late for an epiduryl, and he was born at 9:15. WOW! Amazing story, here's a picture of the little boy.