Halloween Activities

Today we did lots of little Halloween stuff.

Brayden and I make cupcakes:

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Here he is coloring the frosting orange:

White they were baking the twins stopped by for a visit:

Putting the spinkles on:

Evidence that someone was eating the frosting:

and right after that he rubbed his hand on his stomach and said, "yummy, this is making my tummy hungry'! LOL!

The finished product:

Then Brayden and brother carved a pumpkin:

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Getting the guts out:

Pushing 'Mr. Potatoe Head' type pieces into the pumpkin:

Brother helped him carve a bat on one side:

Brayden pushed the face pieces on the other side:

Also - grandpa Bill stopped by and gave him a Halloween present:

He got a pumpkin full of candy, a cute talking/walking witch and a card!

Tomorrow I think we are going to skip the trick-or-treating as Brayden and I am both sick with colds. I am pretty sure that he has been sick every Halloween since he was born. We may just do the makk trick-or-treating and call that good. Will post pictures of whatever we do I am sure!

Training at Work

On one of the days that we did training at work (Sear Portrait Studio) we decided it would be fun to bring our kids in and practice on them, since that is what most of our customers are. Here are a few shots we got:

Isn't he a handsome big boy?!?!

I love this B&W in soft focus!

Not so cute of me but it is of him!

I love the expression on his face!

This is my favorite!

Classic Boy! LOL!

Brayden's hands around my leg showing off the tat for his sister!

Can't wait til I have money to take more. I can already tell this is going to be my new addiction. Now if I could just get Brayden to cooperate.......since he hates his picture taken (and so do I). Probably need to get dad in a few too!

Monkey Boy

Brayden picked out his own Halloween costume this year. We got a magazine in the mail and he was looking at it and just decided that he was going to be a monkey. And not just ANY monkey - only the one in the magazine that he picked out. I showed him several other monkey costumes but he only wanted to be the one from the magazine. It was a challenge finding the costume to as most places were sold out in his size. Luckily - I found one! Here he is the day we got it - he just HAD to try it on:

Doesn't he make an adorable little monkey?

Here he is showing me his tail (which he totally loves):

And his feeties (which he will probably only get to wear in the house):

This video should give you a good laugh. It is him trying to act like a monkey. I think he needs some practice at it........but he sure is good at picking his nose! LOL!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo BooksMonkey Boy - coming soon to a blog near you (Oct. 31st lol)!

Furrrrrrr Babies

Here are a few pictures of our Furr Babies!

This is Zoie:

She is a Lhasa Apso that I got from a breeder when she was about 9 weeks old. She is around 7.5 years old now.

Trixie:

Trixie is our 6 toed kitten that we got from a friend. She took in a stray and this was one of her babies.

Fergie:

This is the stray that the friend took in. She was so sweet that we ended up taking her too.

Momma and Baby reunited:

They were So happy to see each other. She is nursing here.

Kubota:

Kubota is our pit/lab mix that we got from the shelter. We have had him a few months now but he was only about 9 months old when we got him.

Jade's Birthday Party

Brayden's good friend Jade celebrated her 3rd birthday by having a party on Saturday October 11th (her actual birthday was the 10th)! He got her a doctor kit with lots of extras. We knew she would love it cause it is very similar to something at our house that she likes to play with every time she comes over.

Brayden and Jade playing outside at the party:

Jade (peace), Juan (Jade's Mommy) and Brayden:

A horrible picture of me on the floor playing with the kids (but check out that cleavage)...Oh and there is Bart to:

Pinata time! Brayden swung at it one time then got all embarrassed and hid behind me. It was really cute. He wasn't shy when it came to grabbing the candy cause he had a bag full:

This was a tool bench toy that Jade's grandma keeps at her house for the kids to play with. He LOVED it:

He has the goggles on upside down. LOL!

SNAP!

♥Happy 3rd Birthday GEE♥

Kiara's Candle's

Here are some candle's that were lit for Kiara: We lit 4 candle's - one for Kiara, two for our other losses and one for our other friends who have angel babies.Brayden had to check them out. These two are from Nanny Karen and Papa Mark. This one was lite by Erin, a friend on my GEC group, for Kiara and her own angel baby. And here is a video of Brayden blowing out the candles:
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Kiara's Story

For those of you who don't know Kiara's story - here it is:

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Full of Sadness

I would like to give everyone an update on where my pregnancy is at this point. On Monday January 22nd we had our big hospital ultra-sound. Within only a few hours we received a phone call from my OBGYN stating that things 'didn't look right' on the ultra-sound and that we needed to have a follow-up the next day in Eugene. During this time it was discovered that our baby had Holoproscencephaly.....and one of the most severe cases. Basically what this means is that her brain and facial area did not develop properly and as a result she also has a fatal heart condition. If you would like to find out more about this condition you can browse this website: http://www.stanford.edu/group/hpe/about/. We were notified that she will not make it full term - maybe only another 2-6 weeks (I was 19 weeks at the time). We had an amniocentesis in hopes of finding out more behind the reason for this happening. In most cases it is just a fluke that happens when the sperm and egg join and the baby then gets too many or not enough chromosomes. We were told that it looks like the baby was a GIRL, but one condition of this disease is that the genitals do not form as quickly as normal, so the amnio will give us a definite. As for now we are calling her Kiara Mae! She will be leaving my womb at 19 weeks 4 days but will always be in our hearts!!!


Monday, January 29, 2007

Thanks from Kiara

I wanted to take a minute and thank everyone who has been supporting me through this awful time! It means so much to me to know that I have so much support! The comments, messages and flowers have brought smiles to my face many times now! We will be picking Kiara's cremation up either today or tomorrow - so now we can get on with the emotional healing! I did get a little more information regarding her condition after getting results from the amnio. Her birth defect (called Holoprosencephaly) was caused by Trisomy 13 which is a presence of a third (extra) number 13 chromosome. Kiara's case was one of the worst (called Alobar) and the radiologist said in 20 years it was the first time she had ever seen cyclopia (a single central eye) and proboscis (nose located on the forehead). This being the case we know that Kiara Mae is in a much better place where God intended her to be! Thank you again to everyone for there well wishes!!!

Final Goodbye

My final day with Kiara Mae:


R.I.P. My Sweet Angel:

Remembering Kiara Mae

Today seemed like a good day to start a blog. Not sure how much I will keep it up but I am going to try.

Today is:

I wanted to post something in memory of Kiara so while searching online I came across this poem:

My mom is a survivor,

or so I've heard it said.

But I can hear her crying

when all others are in bed.

I watch her lay awake at night.

and go to hold her hand.

She doesn't know I'm with her

to help her understand.

But like the sands upon a beach

that never wash away...

I watch over my surviving mom

who thinks of me each day.

She wears a smile for others,

a smile of disguise.

But through Heaven's open door,

I see tears flowing from her eyes.

My mom tries to cope with my death,

to keep my memory alive.

But anyone who knows her

knows it's her way to survive.

As I watch over my surviving mom

through Heaven's open door...

I try to tell her that

Angels protect me forevermore.

I know that doesn't help her,

or ease the burdens she bears.

So if you get a chance, call to her

And show her that you care.

For no matter what she feels,

my surviving mom has a broken heart

that time won't ever heal.

If you have the time and you light a candle in honor of Kiara, I would love to have you email me a picture so I can keep it in her memory box.

When I have a little more time I will post a blog for those of you who have not heard Kiara's story.