Slow week...

Things were a lot slower paced this week than last. We're just glad to be back at home with power, water, phone, TV, and Internet. :)

We went to visit my Dad today. He's doing much better and will be going home on Monday. We were happy to see him and had a great visit...although it was a little shorter than I would have liked. All the time we spent in the car today made Ana Kate a bit cranky, so we headed home a bit earlier than I had planned.

Here is a picture I took of Ana Kate with her flower headband on....she's loves her flowers. I love the expression on her face in this one. I'm planning to practice with my new camera this week...so hopefully I'll have lots more pictures to post soon.

I ♥ Faces - 'The Eyes Have It'

I've decided to start entering some of my pictures into the weekly contest at I ♥ Faces . This weeks theme is 'The Eyes Have It', and what better picture to enter than one of my brown-eyed girl. Check out their blog and enter your photos.

Crazy week...

It's been a while since my last post....there wasn't much going on around here, that is until last week. Then things got crazy....

I got a call last Friday that my Dad was having chest pains and they were taking him to the hospital. My Dad lives about 4 hours away and luckily the hospital they were taking him to was only 3 hours from here. I started packing some things and by 3:00 Whitney, Ana Kate, and I were on our way to see Papa. I was pretty worried, but when we got there he seemed to be doing fine. While he was in the hospital we stayed at my Dad's house so we'd be within an hour of the hopital. He was scheduled for a test Saturday morning which showed some major blockages, so they then scheduled bypass surgery for Monday. Whitney went home with Doug Saturday night, so Ana Kate and I headed to the hopital around 5:oo am Monday morning to see Papa prior to his surgery. Everything went really well and we got to see him pretty soon after surgery.

On top of all this the weather started to get bad in the area on Monday night, so Ana Kate and I along with my Aunt Clella ended up staying the night in the hospital lobby. It was pretty rough...but Ana Kate did really well. The ice storm was so bad we thought we'd be stuck Tuesday night as well, but we decided to try to make it back before more bad weather hit. We made it with no problems. I had just gotten out of the shower and bathed Ana Kate when the power went out. Luckily my Dad has a gas heater, so we went to bed around 7:30 and slept through the night. It was a bit scary as trees were falling all over the place....a few actually falling on the roof. All of my Dad's brothers came to check on us the next day and brought us plenty of water. By Wednesday afternoon we decided to venture out to see if my Aunt Sharlette had power. There were power lines down, so we had to take quite a detour, but we made it there and she did have power....but no water. Luckily I brought what water I had with me and they had several jugs there already that we were able to fill. By Thursday the power was back on at my Dad's and we moved back there and headed back home on Friday. My Dad is doing very well and should be going home sometime this week. We had quite the week and I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be home.

I didn't take my camera with me, but I did take some pictures of the storm with my Dad's camera. I will try to post them later this week when I go back to see him. I will always take my camera with me from now on...no matter what. I just can't describe to you the devestation of the storm....you would just have to see it for yourself.

Anyway....I am working on taking lots of pictures this week and will post some later in the week.

We love you Papa and hope you are feeling better each day. We'll see you in a few days!

Back to Normal

Ana Kate is finally getting back to normal....so I'm hoping that she stays healthy for the rest of the winter.

My Dad came yesterday to visit and we went to the basketball game to watch Whitney perform. We had a great time and Ana Kate LOVED it. They were playing Bentonville and both teams (boys & girls) won, so it was fun to watch. The cheer and pom squads did a great job as well...I wish I had taken my video camera, but I did take a few still shots. We'll probably start going to more of the games since Ana Kate did so well.

Enjoy the pictures...

Papa & Ana Kate


Whitney & Papa


Whitney performing:

The temperature changes here have been crazy lately. These pictures were taken last Saturday when it was 70 degrees outside. Today it is 28 degrees outside.

Hanging in there...

Ana Kate is getting better....but she was definitely acting crankier today. That may be because I woke her up at 8:00 to get ready for the doctor's appointment, and she doesn't usually get up until 9:00 or 9:30. Then again she may be cranky because I've gone through a box of tissue today wiping her nose. The good news is she only had 1 outfit change today and that was due to her gagging herself, not diarrhea. (She hasn't done the gagging thing in a while, but she decided to do it today at lunch in the middle of the restaurant....it was REALLY bad.)

Anyway, the doctor visit went pretty well. He said her lungs sound great and to continue with the antibiotic. So she seems to be healing well and the medication is doing what it's supposed to do. So hopefully she'll continue to improve and be back to normal again by next week.

You can tell how much I've wiped her nose and face...it it so red and chapped.

Still sick...

Ana Kate is still sick and sounds bad, but I do think she's feeling better. We have a follow up appointment with her pediatrician in the morning, so we'll see what he thinks. She is acting more like herself, but unfortunately she's also experiencing some nasty side effects from the antibiotic (of the blowout variety)....which is pretty nasty. So I'm trying to just keep her hydrated. We've already been through 3 outfits today, so I finally gave up and put her in her pajamas before dinner. Hopefully they can give her something tomorrow to help. She only took an hour nap today and I knew she was tired after dinner. I was checking my email in the kitchen and she was playing at my feet.....when I realized that she was very quiet. I looked over at her and she was sound asleep on the kitchen floor! It couldn't have been comfortable, but she looked content. I couldn't resist taking a few pictures before moving her to the couch. She is still asleep, so I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and post an update.

Sleepy girl:

Sick baby girl

Ana Kate hasn't been feeling well this weekend. I thought she had a cold on Friday, so I decided to see if it cleared up over the weekend. She seemed fine, but continued to run a fever of 99 or 100 through Saturday. Then Saturday night she woke up at about 12:30 in the morning with a temperature of 103, coughing up mucus....and really congested. So we got dressed and took her to the emergency room. She felt so bad and she looked just miserable. They took her back right away and ran a couple of tests (one was testing for the flu, and I can't remember what they called the other one)...but both tests were negative. They also ordered a chest x-ray. This was probably the worst part for me. Have you seen the contraption they use to get a chest x-ray on an infant? It looks like a torture device....and Ana Kate sounded as if she were being tortured. But it served it's purpose and held her completely still for the two x-rays. It was so hard hearing her screaming and crying and not be able to comfort her until it was over. She immediately stopped crying though, once we got her unstrapped. So after all that they determined that Ana Kate has pneumonia. They thought it was just the beginning stages and that antibiotics should help her feel better quickly. So after a shot of antibiotics, a dose of tylenol, and a breathing treatment they let us go home. We got home around 3:30 am and went to bed. Ana Kate then woke up again at 6:30 am with a high fever again....so I gave her more tylenol and we went back to bed and slept until noon today. She seemed to sleep much better that time and I gave her the antibiotic and motrin when she woke up. So far her fever hasn't returned and she seems to be improving. She still sounds bad, but is sleeping much more soundly. I haven't had such a sick baby before....it was so scary! Please remember to say a prayer for her. I'm hoping she'll be back to her usual self soon.

I took a few pictures of her tonight and I must say she looks 100% better that she did last night. I've included a couple. I will post an update tomorrow.