Beach 2011

Last week we loaded up the car and hit the road nice and early (4am, and no Perri didn't sleep at all) and met up with my parents in Gulf Shores for the week. We stayed at The Beach Club on Fort Morgan and it was wonderful!! The first few days Perri wasn't a huge fan of the ocean and mainly played in the sand or the pool and would tell us "The ocean is too big for me." But after that she warmed up to it and spent a lot of time playing in the ocean with Craig and her Pops. Mom and I mainly spent the time soaking up the sun and reading. We let them entertain :) It was such a nice relaxing vacation and mainly we were on the beach or at the pool and then would do dinner out at night. Before Perri we would have a full shopping day and then go to little shops here and there but with a 2.5 yr old it just doesn't work out that way, and since we have the big outlet malls here its not very exciting doing the outlets at the beach anymore.

A few pics from our little photo shoot in her precious crab dress. Later she spiked a fever so she was not feeling very good at all in these.

Classic Perri pouting

Our little family

And here are lots more that I'm not taking the time to edit but thought I'd share from our week!

If we weren't on the beach she was in this beautiful ensemble. To say she's obsessed with princesses is an understatement to say the least.

Practicing her back floating in the boat. Gotta love some Houston Swim Club!

She's way more into the idea of riding these than actually riding them. She usually says she's bored and wants off as soon as she gets on but begs us to ride all of them.

Perri and Pops at the Gulf Shores Zoo. It was on the Animal Planet a couple years ago on "The Little Zoo That Could" during a hurricane. It's pretty cute but WOW was it hot. We were all literally soaked from sweat.

Loved getting to feed the animals

Attacking me with pot holders

Playing at Lu Lu's 

Loved to pull her daddy and Pops on the boogie board

She thinks it's hilarious to take pictures picking her nose...

Boat ride to spot dolphins. 

Jumping off the boogie board into the water. Entertained her for a long time

She NEVER sleeps anywhere but her bed and this was super out of character for her so I took tons of pics of her passed out on her daddy. She later spiked a really high fever and didn't eat all day so it made sense then why she fell asleep on him. 

We had such a great week and were sad to leave but I was definitely over the humidity there. I tried to wear my hair straight one time and it immediately grew and was huge by the time we got outside. Bad idea. So I had to go with the curls the whole trip. Not my favorite but I guess it's better than big frizzy trying to be straight hair. 

4th of July 2011

Our July 4 this year was pretty low key and laid back, which was really nice. That morning we went to the pool for several hours then that evening we met up my friend Shanna and her husband Zach and daugher Avery at La Centerra, an outdoor shopping area here. They have bands, food vendors and lots of kid stuff to do. However, it was crazy there and the kids area was a madhouse so we only ended up doing face, or arm painting as the girls did, and waiting in line for that took 45 minutes. Other than that we just walked around and chatted.

Here are some pics from the evening!

4 Years Ago Today

I married my best friend!! Happy Anniversary Craig!!
(sorry so short but I'm recovering from a monster stomach bug)

Giveaway!!

Go on over to Jenna's blog and check out the giveaway :)

Oh and just so there's more to the post than a link, here's my pretty girl!

Wordless Wednesday

Dance Your Shoes Off

Love our church!! This past Saturday over 2,000 members of our church, Second Baptist Church in Houston, got together at Discovery Green to celebrate Easter. At the end of the dance they all left their brand new shoes they wore for the dance, to be donated to local mission agencies. It was called "Dance Your Shoes Off"

2 weeks post surgery

So sorry I am just now updating on how Sarah is doing and how surgery went!! Our intended one week trip to Arkansas ended up lasting 3 weeks, but I am so thankful that we were able to be there so long and be with Sarah and my family. Craig was able to come up the Sunday before surgery and was a great help with Perri and allowed me to be up at the hospital for as much as I wanted.

Surgery ended up lasting about 16 hours, much longer than the anticipated 10-12. They ran into issues with spinal fluid build up that resulted in them working on that problem for 2 hours. Surgery went really well and praise the Lord Sarah's face is not paralyzed!!! There was a 50% chance of this so we were very scared about that. She did lose hearing and all function in her left ear, but this is something she knew going in would happen and was prepared for. Losing the function of her left ear has left her with a lot of balance problems, as her body has to essentially relearn to walk and her right side has to compensate for the loss.

She ended up being in ICU after surgery for over a week due to continued spinal fluid problems. Apparently the tumor had been blocking the flow of spinal fluid for quite a while and when the tumor was removed the fluid did not reabsorb into the body as it should, but instead continued to flow out of the shunt they had put into her head to help incase this happened (well most was removed, some had to be left on brain stem but hopefully will not grow and if it does will require radiation in the future).  For the first probably 3 days after surgery Sarah was still pretty groggy and out of it and at one point about two days after surgery asked me what happened. When I told her she had had surgery to remove the tumor her eyes opened huge with the biggest look of surprise. The dr. said this was normal though due to the amount of anesthesia in her system from being out for 16+ hours. She had a LOT of pain on her right side and even developed blisters from being strapped to a metal table on her side for so long.

She has been a trooper and not too long after surgery she started weaning off the pain meds and less than a week after surgery she was taking just Tylenol and then nothing!

She finally got out of ICU and was released only to have to come back that evening due to the spinal fluid leaking. They had done a CT before releasing her to make sure it was still doing well but by that evening she was leaking out of the spot where the shunt had been. This was pretty freaky and gross and she was admitted back into the hospital for another two days for observation and luckily this resolved itself after a while.

Sarah went back to the neurosurgeon this Monday and he said all was well and she was doing great! She went in again today to get the staples out and he said again she was doing great and she doesnt have to come back until May!! She has been having a few headaches and vertigo and was very scared this was more spinal fluid buildup but her dr. said this was normal and if the headaches did not go away then that would mean spinal fluid problems.

She is now recovering at my parents house and taking it easy there. Perri and I are back home and while its nice to be home, I loved being able to be with my family for so long!! So hard living so far from them!!

Im sure I'm leaving out information but this post has already become quite the novel!!

Also- thank you SO much for everyone's prayers, kind words, meals, visiting us at the hospital, flowers, etc. We have appreciated them so very much!!