Standing proud in Daddy's socks!

 

4 month belly

 

Our "After Christmas Party"

The Holidays ended up getting really busy, so we decided to have our little "party" a bit after the busy season. From left to right: Amanda, Gabriel, Dillon, Cheyenne, Jack, Kaylin, Gina and Ruthie. 

Cookin' up some Christmas Goodies

I know it's probably not that funny to all of you, but while I was finishing up some Christmas Baking I turned around and found Kaylin in the oven's pot drawer! I was cracking up - she just looked so cute in there! 

The ouchie finger incident

Around the 2nd week in December, on a Wednesday, Kaylin had just woke up from a wonderful 3 hour nap. I called her to come downstairs, but she decided that it would be much more fun to play in the bathroom sink than to come downstairs. So I went up to get her out of the bathroom and she threw a temper tantrum in the doorway of the bathroom - I was pulling the door shut behind me when she let out a yelp and I looked at her finger and saw blood. "Oh my Gosh I pinched her little finger in the door!!!" I thought to myself. So I took her over to the sink to run it under some cold water. As soon as the water hit her finger, the whole tip of it flipped back - and I, of course, let out a horrified scream (or 10). All but about 1/8" of the whole tip of her left ring finger was cut off - I was seriously freaking out. So I ran to the phone and called 911, and off we were to the ER in an ambulance. I must've waited in the ER with her poor little finger like that for about 2 hours when they finally sewed it back on. It was HORRIBLE. They put her in a papoose (which is a really nice way of saying full body straight jacket for babies) to do this. The Dr. was really comforting though - he made sure to let me know that her little finger tip was probably not going to survive and was going to turn black and fall off anyways. So she was going to have a short finger for the rest of her life (this made me feel SO much better!). So I was to follow up with a hand surgeon ASAP - which of course we needed to get approved by our primary dr. - and by the time we actually got the approval, everything was closed for the weekend. So we were told to the ER at Loyola (a nice 1hr. trip) seeing as they had a hand surgeon on staff there. So back we went to the ER 2 days later to have them put her in full arm cast. When we finally did get to the hand surgeon, he took everything off and said all she needed was BAND AID! And her finger would be fine! Talk about a healing! Even the Dr. there said that God did a work on her hand and healed it. It was a horrible, horrible experience to see my little baby have to go through all that - but wonderfully amazing to see how she was healed. Today, her nail is starting to grow back and her finger looks wonderful!

The Cast

For our joyous 2nd trip back to the emergency room - the Dr. put this full arm cast on as a "precautionary measure". She did not like this as much as the splint! It was very hard for her to do anything, since there was not even one little finger on her left hand out - it was all in the cast. She couldn't even climb up onto the couch, pick up a toy, a book or anything (makes me want to cry all over again just thinking about it!). 

The Splint

She had this splint on her ouchie finger for about 3 days. She actually didn't seem to mind it at all. In fact she kinda' was freaking me out at the way she would literally bang it on things, like it was an attached drum stick! yikes... 

Kaylin and Rachel - Thanksgiving at Grandma C's

 

Halloween - Kaylin and Sydney Ladybugs

 

Tammy's 27th Birthday

 

Mmmm... She loves her Corona with Lime!

 

All dressed up in Daddy's Tee Shirt

 

Great America "Home School Day"

 

What the ...

Okay, so I don't know what the hay is wrong with this computer. I have been trying to put pictures up here for weeks (it's actually added up to HOURS of trying to post) and the darned thing will NOT work. So I am going to have to post them from someone else's computer...
Sorry for the delay - I know that you have all been checking every single day and every single night looking forward to gazing at our photos and hearing about the vivid details of our lives, but your just going to have to wait a bit longer.
Tammy