The latest, and worst hospitalization Feb-March 2010

At the end of Feb. Katrina had another asthma flare up. It ended up being the worst attack she has ever had. The cause was unknown and the treatment was swift and effective but the event was terrifying. She was admitted into the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). She was not responding to the medicines and for a brief period the doctors were afraid they were going to have to intubate her to allow her a little relief int he struggle to breathe.

Auntie Leah rocks her as she final sleeps for a few minutes in the PICU.
By the time she was moved to the floor for a couple days she was tired of her oxygen and decided it did more "good" on her nose rather than IN her nose.

Totally wired and bored!!! what to do what to do????

Create paper towel costumes of course!!!!!

Thank you to all my friends and family that came to the hospital to be with us during that time! I can not put into words how much the prayers, meals, visits, texts, and love that you offer us means in those times and the weeks/months in between.

We spend alot of time walking on pins and needles and if not for our freinds lifting us up our feet would be bloody and scarred!
THANK YOU!

Painting a birdhouse.

Final product!

Hard at work

Blank slate....where to begin?

Katrina's surgery

On Feb 3rd, 2010 Katrina had surgery. She was originally slated to just get tubes put in her ears to help alleviate some of the illnesses that have lead to her hospitalizations. When her team of doctors realized she would be put under for the procedure they jumped on the chance to do some preliminary testing and observance to get to the bottom of her health issues. In simple terms they put a camera down her throat to examine her entire airway system for defects or irregularities. They also took a sample of her cilia (hairlike things inside lungs) to test for a genetic disorder. they found nothing!

Due to the nature of the surgery and her medical history they warned us that she may be kept overnight for observation. Here she is packed and ready to head to the hospital. Such a brave and happy little trooper!!!
At the hospital

waiting in pre-op

out of order but, Grandma Joyce was here to give me some much needed support. This is in waiting area of surgery center. Just an hour before surgery and still ALL smiles and strength!

Post-op hang out! Auntie Laura was able to join us and it was clear that after surgery and the intial fear of waking up alone (yes, I was not allowed there intitally, but her screams brought me in fairly quickly) Kat made it clear that mom and grandma were chopped liver in comparison!

So glad that day went smoothly and we were able to come home the same day!

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Katrina and I....rare, unflattering pictures

Enjoying the winter weather with a warm fire in our new apartment.
Katrina loves any excuse to get in the fridge and/or help me cook!

One of our favorite date spots.....

Medicine time.....way to much a part of our lives!

Fun at the park with Auntie Leah and Avery (ethan is around here with grandma Joyce somewhere!)

and more.......

Katrina is a natural on ice skates, at least OFF the ice!
HHer first formal tea party at Queen Mary Tea room. This was a tradition I started with Dagny when she was a toddler. So, for her 12th birthday in Jan. we went back to celebrate and introduced Katrina to our traditions!

Enjoying the horse that was taller than her!

Like her mother Kat seems to love being near the water. On this day, we went to Coulon Park and played, and spent a lng time just sitting here beside the water chatting and watching the boats.

Work starts early for Miss Cahill!

let the history begin......

Katrina, loves this soft chair and spent many days carrying it around the house at work to sit wherever I was at. Here she takes a front row seat to my lunch prepations.
Still a favorite toy!

Taking her cue from the older girl i nanny and snuggling up in her bookshelf!

SeriouSerious competition of dominoe's!

Checking out the Seattle aquarium.

We're baaaaack!

Well, I still don't have the camera of my dreams but between use of a freinds camera as well as finally finding a way to get pictures off my phone onto the blog i think I will resurect this poor blog! There is so much to catch up that i fear for a bit at least it will be full of random photos from the past year! Hope you enjoy!

Birthday Party

Happy Birthday Katrina!! Yesterday Katrina invited her friends to celebrate her golden birthday with her. We had a great time, a little chaos and lots of love!

Katrina had her friends help her open gifts!
They also helped decorate goodie bags.

and of course eat cake, or cupcakes in most cases.

I made an attempt at my first homemade birthday cake. I had a bit of help with the sugar design, but the piping was all me!!! There is hope for future years!

Big Bed

Thursday Katrina got her "big bed". Really, it is just her mattress on the floor. The first night sleeping in the big bed I went in to check on her after about 30 minutes and she had managed to pull her bin of shoes off of the nightstand and into bed with her. She had shoes scattered all over her bed and her arm around the bin. Needless to say the gate shown here has been replaced with a slightly taller and wider gate to prevent more shoes from sneaking into bed with her.

Last night, I crawled into bed, just got comfy, and I here Katrina's sleepy voice from her side of the room saying "Mama" to which I roll my eyes thinking it is not time for her to get up obviously, and say "Yes, Katrina" and she replies " night night" MY HEART MELTED! I wanted to just go grab her up and cuddle with her, but, I didn't and she went back to sleep! What a sweetheart!

Leah's bracelet

Leah's friend Liz makes amazing jewelry! For Christmas Leah recruited her to make each of her sister and mom a necklace that represents important parts of our lives. SO, for her birthday we asked Liz to make Leah a bracelet.

The face says it all!!

Ethan always the perfect gentleman, helps mom put on her new jewels!ah'

Making Cookies

A few weeks ago I had a hankering for Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. Katrina was gracious enough to indulge me.....Despite all the work it took!!!

After geting out her stool and moving it back and forth between the pantry and the counter with each ingredient she finally gathered all that was needed.
She measured out all the flour, sugar, and dry ingredients while I cracked eggs.

Then she dropped them carefully onto the stone insisting that actualy touching the dough was out of the question!

While the cookies were baking she washed,

and dried her dishes.

When the kitchen was clean she sat beside the oven knock and listening to hear if the cokies were done yet. Apparently finished cookies talk or something because she was insistant that they weren't done yet when there was no response.

Exhausted, she sat down to enjoy the fruits of her labor!

Tube time

Katrina loves when I pull out her tube set. It takes over the entire living room and she crawls around like crazy!

A soothing voice

This afternoon Katrina was crying and begging and pleading with everything her little heart could muster up. She was convinced I was being mean and with holding BROCCOLI (????) from her.

Lucky for me I happen to have just called my mom and the chance to talk on the phone was a perfect distraction! and yes, we did make a special trip to the grocery store to get more broccoli. For dinner she ate a few parsnips, rejected the meatloaf, and ate about a good cup of the beloved broccoli. What a goofy girl!

Kat colors

Katrina took advantage of her new art supplies and experiments with colored pencils.

She loved dumping the pencils and flipping through the coloring book to see all the pictures.

Finally, she gets down to business and discovers what fun happens when the pencil touches the paper and she was hooked!

Double Trouble or Twice as Nice? you be the judge....

Last Friday I had the privledge of spending the day with Katrina and Avery. While Leah and Ethan went on a big school field trip full of adventure the girls taught me what NOT to do!

Lesson number 1..... MAKE YOUR PRESENSE KNOWN

Tackle those you love, sit on them and escape using brute force to throw the offender off of you.

Lesson 2....TURN ABOUT IS FAIR PLAY

retaliate and take prisoners.

Lesson 3.... DIVIDE AND CONQUER,

run to the bathroom at once to see how much water you can waste in 30 seconds.

Lesson 4.... TABLE MANNERS ARE FOR ADULTS ONLY
no silverware, no proper posture

Lesson 5.... DESTROY ALL THAT YOU SEE

this is a view after mom was out of the house for 1 hour!

All in all it was a great day and we had alot of fun!