Brinlee turns 3

Brinlee turned 3 back in November. She had a mermaid party. I think the party turned out pretty cute.

Here she is in her 3 year old shirt excited to party

For dinner we had all sorts of food on sticks. Pizza kabobs, chicken nugget and veggie kabobs, and sweet and sour kabobs. They each had there own cups of sauce to dip them in

For dessert we had cake pops and peanut butter balls

They went fishing for treasures

They got to punch into cups for surprises

And finally they got to have their picture taken as a mermaid...

or crab!

She got lots of fun presents

including a giant doll house from her Grandpa Frank and Grandma Jane

And even the babies joined in on the action (PS Ashlee.. who even is this baby? Was he ever that tiny? And Hadlee looks exactly the same now as she did then :) )

Halloween!

Halloween was super fun. I always wanted a tiny baby for Halloween to dress all up and I got it this year. SO of course she was an adorable watermelon :) It had a cute hat but it covered up all her hair that I like to show off so I kept it off. Brinlee was Goldilocks and Dave and I were nerds
Halloween day we did our normal tradition of going trick or treating at the mall then headed over to Collette's house for dinner and some trick or treating with the cousins. I was thankful for the warm weather so I could tag along with baby Hadlee.

Dave's Birthday

We celebrated Dave's 28th birthday clear back in October. We surprised him with some cupcakes, took him to his favorite restaurant Red Robin and then went to see the witches at Gardner Village.

I am back!!!

We finally got a new computer!!! I can finally blog again! So prepare for a bunch of random posts of the last 6 months :) But I thought I would start off with an update on Hadlee.

About 2 weeks ago we went in for a follow up for her neurologist. Back in January we had scheduled some major tests to be done to find out exactly how bad the nerve damage was in her neck and arm but because we didn't currently have health insurance we scheduled them for April. We met with her a week before to check and see if she had made progress enough to cancel the tests. I was almost sure we would still have to go through with them because that is kinda our luck so I was totally shocked when she canceled them and told us she saw no reason why she would even need to see her again her arm was doing that well! It was so exciting! I am so impressed with how far she has come in her 7 months of being here. However it doesn't mean we are totally done with Erb's palsy. She will probably have to go to physical therapy monthly for the first few years of her life and she may never be able to full extend her arm above her head or grasp as well with her left hand, but considering what it could have been, we definitely can handle that.
Another side effect from the Erb's is she kinda held her to one side causing a major flat spot. We have been going to physical therapy for that too and her neck is pretty much better but the flat spot is still there. So Hadlee gets to wear a helmet for the next 3 months. I had a hard time with the idea at first and I think mainly it was because her therapist kinda made me feel like it was my fault. But now that i realize lots of kids have to wear them I feel better.

here she looking all cute in it.
I think she looks like a gum ball :)

Of course Brinlee wanted one too