Visit from Stacey/Wine Country

One of my favorite people came to visit over the weekend, Stacey Gwinnup. My kids loved having Stacey visit and were very sad to see her go on Sunday. Eva said, "Stacey {where} are you?"

Stacey was so fun, patient and nice to both of the girls. Case in point; below Stacey let Lila blow dry her hair for an hour on 2 different occasions. Lila was in heaven that Stacey trusted her to do her hair and promised Stacey that it would look good. 

Out in the Pearl District on Friday night

On Saturday Anne, Kelli, Stacey and I went to Oregon's Wine Country for a fabulous day in the country. The wine was amazing, the food was even better {Farm to Fork}. A perfect day with the girls.

Saturday night Scott, Lila and Eva planned a surprise birthday party for Stacey {her birthday was on Sunday}. Lila was thrilled about throwing surprise party and went all out decorating with balloons and streamers.

Laundry Room

Today I said to Lila, "Watch Eva for a second while I run upstairs". I never do that but I thought she might enjoy the responsibility and besides they were both sitting at their red table eating dinner when I left. Precisely one minute later Lila is upstairs. I say to Lila, "We better go downstairs to check on Eva". She says, "No mama, Eva's fine, I put her in the laundry room". WHAT? I run downstairs and Eva is in the laundry room, door shut with the light off demanding to be let out. Eva seemed unphased by the incident. Lila was 100% serious that she had put Eva in a safe place. Cute? Sweet? Naughty? Mischievous?  

My Little Helper

Lila is always wanting to help me so I put her to work vacuuming the kitchen.

Santa Spotting in November (12th to be exact)!

Friday is Girls Day Off...it's the day I take off each week and spend with the girls. Last Friday Scott took the day off and spent it with us which was a treat. We started the day with an allergy appointment for Lila (woo-hoo) I know but I was REALLY glad I didn't have to haul Eva to the appointment since they tend to be long.

After that we went to Slappy Cakes for breakfast. If you haven't been there or heard of it this place is super fun for kids and adults. They have a griddle on the table and you make our own pancakes right at the table. You've likely seen other posts about this on our blog if you read regularly. You get to order all kinds of sides to add to your pancakes. This week we had bananas, chocolate chips and cheese (uh... that was all Lila).

Then we went downtown Portland to Pioneer Courthouse Square to watch them bring in a HUGE Christmas Tree to be set up for the holidays. We were really surprised to see SANTA! Both girls did great Lila giving him a hug and Eva a smile. Neither of them were scared at all. I'm hoping this translates into a great photo of them both sitting on Santa's lap smiling. Fingers crossed!

We even got free hot chocolate!

The most impressive thing about this was all of the equipment that it took to move this tree and that they moved it around with a crowd up people underneath. Yes, we stood to the side!

Two Little Turkey's

Getting into the holiday season and making hand shaped turkeys!

Below is Eva's handprint made into a turkey (age 19 months).

Lila's hand shaped turkey and her name L-I-L-A (age almost 3 1/2).

Gymnastics

Lila went to a gymnastics birthday party recently where she experienced bungie jumping and zip lining. Our brave girl!

Zoo

We had a fabulous morning at the zoo with my cousin Mahkaea on Sunday. The weather was chilly but sunny as you can tell from the photos. 

Super dad!

Medical Bills ~ Ouch!

It's almost laughable the number of medical bills we've gotten over the past 3 months. Now that our insurance company has paid their portion we are finally paying our portion. Ouch! Even with good insurance it's painful to write those checks.

Interestingly St. Vincent's, the first emergency room that sent me home with a ruptured liver and massive internal bleeding, opted to waive my portion of the $1,800 bill that they sent.

We are so grateful to have wonderful insurance to cover the bulk of our expenses. Not everyone is fortunate to have quality medical insurance. The moral of the photo below is that clearly everyone needs to be protected with quality insurance. $146,926.88 is not they type of medical bill a family can recover from. That's like adding a second mortgage payment to the monthly bills.  

A quick progress update. In October I had another ultrasound to take a look at my liver. At the time I had been prepped and expected to hear "all clear" that my liver had repaired itself. That's not what I heard. My doctor called with the news that I have a hematoma on my liver that measures about 2 inches by 3 inches. I was really, really shocked and disappointed to hear this. The next day I called Dr. Cagle, my surgeon, who I've grown to trust significantly. She got back to me and said that she actually wasn't surprised to hear that I still had a hematoma and that considering that half of my liver had a hematoma in July that a 2 by 3 inch hematoma was a great improvement. She did add though that it means that I will remain restricted from contact activity which means no snow skiing for me and please don't punch me in the stomach! I'm clear to run or do spin class as long as I'm careful not to trip, fall or over do it. I'm listening to my body intently.

Lila's First Joke - "Why did the sheep cross the road?"

Look at us: One and a Half

It's fun to look back at Lila when she was Eva's age. Here she is at 16 months and Eva below at 19 months. Lila was bigger at 16 months than Eva is now at 19th months although Eva has much more hair. Both girls have a lot of teeth for their age. Both girls also have a lot of words in their vocabulary. And both have a lot of smiles that they share often. Love them!

 

Halloween 2010

Another year trick-or-treating in our neighborhood and oh what fun. There were so many kids (we had 95 trick-or-treaters at our house before we ran out of candy). Our kids like to take things slow and just walk around our small block but it's a lot of fun because we know so many of our neighbors.

Below little Tinkerbell. This costume was made just a short 25 years ago for me to wear when I was in 3rd grade. My mom made it and it's held up really, really well. Yes, I was tiny in 3rd grade and Lila at nearly 3 1/2 is tall. 

Eva ready to trick-or-treat for the first time at our neighbors Erik and Maria's.  She LOVED trick-or-treating...knocking on the doors, selecting candy, and saying thank you. Her smile was SO BIG the whole time!

Lila, Sam, Hailey, Ethan, Kevin, Thad (behind the monkey face) and Eva. 

Knock, knock...

Eva showing Poppy all of her Halloween loot. Irv and Michele stayed at our house while we were out and handed out candy. This is the 3rd out of 4th year since we've had kids that Irv and Michele have been at our house on Halloween. Isn't that sweet? I think I'd call that a tradition!