THE 1st Party

My beautiful little baby girl turned 1 yesterday on November 5th, 2010! Extremely weird, VERY bittersweet! Have I absorbed every minute of this past year . . . I hope so! I love her so much! (When I say "I love her so much" I mean, EVERYONE loves her so much!) She is one loved little girl! She has the most addicting personality and she's crazy adorable!
Here are a few things about Evie, the 1 year old princess:

• 6 . . . S.I.X. teeth (4 of which came in at the same time!)
• Walking (she took her first steps on Nov. 1st, 2010)
• Jibber Jabbering all day
• Bobs her head to music
• LOVES (as always) her dad THE most; she looks SO forward to him coming home from work! It's become my favorite time of the day just to see Evie so excited :)
• Got her first (pink and sparkly) hearing aids on Nov. 4th, 2010, and is doing GREAT with them!
• Loves peanut butter and honey sandwiches with a sippy of 2% milk!
  OFF the bottle :) . . . working on the binky still . . .
• Loves attention! She'll gets SUPER hyper and shows everyone all her tricks @ once if she has an audience!
• (My favorite) She points @ everything! We say, "Where is ma ma?" "Where are the dogs?" "Where is grandma?" etc etc etc and she points to them!
• Likes to stand on her head and look @ you through her legs. She's even somersaulted a few times!

Now to the {overdone} PAR-TAY! My mom and I had so much fun planning and decorating Evie's 1st birthday party! We had a great turn out! Evie got SO MANY new toys/clothes/books/blankies/etc! She's spoiled rotten! Here are some picts from the party of the century!

{DeCorAtiOnS}

{Kai, Jaycee, Evie}

{Birthday toy from Grandma Morton}

{Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday dear Evie}

{1st birthday cake. . . . yummmmm}

{presents . . . THANKS EveRyOne!}

{my sweet mom! couldn't do it without her!}

Evie's 1st HaLLoWeeN :)

{I realize this picture is awful, but it's the only family picture we had}

My little pigglet Evie! I love this chubby little costume! I swear you just wanted to pick Evie up and love and squish her! She looked adorable in her piggy costume! Braden and I were decked out in our 'Grease Lightenin' attire. I couldn't take Braden seriously with his hair in a comb-over.

We didn't do anything too eventfull! We went 'trick or treating' to 4 people :) Each of our parents, my aunt, and my grandma! Whoo! And we didn't take any treats either - we told them we were bringing the treat; and it was Evie the pig!

If you can't tell by the pictures, Evie was so worn out! It had been a long day and she didn't get too excited about the whole Halloween thing this year!

Happy Halloween!

9 more days . . . .

In 9 more days my baby is going to be a 'big girl'! That's how I feel! In 9 more days my Evie will be 1 year old! TOO. WeIrD. for. THE. mOm. I seriously don't understand! That was THE fastest year of my entire life! By far much faster than the last year, when I was pregnant, when time seemed to D.R.A.G! Time is such a weird thing.

My cousin, Shelli http://greeneinkphotos.blogspot.com/, did Evie's 1st year pictures yesterday! My auntie, Lexus, came with us, and we had so much fun! We ended up doing her picts. @ the new SpringHill Suites, Marriott (it's totally funky and fun in there)! It has been SO cold outside! And I'm so glad Shelli thought to do them there - SUCH a great idea! The style of the hotel matched Evie's funky outfit perfectly! The whole setting was very 'Evie-ish' aka ExTreMelY SpUnKy! Evie L.O.V.E.S. attention (as do most children) and was having a blast w/ the photo shoot! "All eye's on Evie" is Evie's motto . . . I KNOW it is :)

I love my baby girl! She's such a 'go-get-errr'! I'm so happy that she's here on this earth with Braden and I. Healthy. Happy. Beautiful. PERFECT. Evie is such a special girl, her Heavenly Father sent her to this earth to be with us (her parents) - to help US love, learn, and grow MORE than we ever would have without her. I KNOW, without a doubt, that Evie is here for a special purpose. We've had too many special things happen since she came to us for her not to be on an amazing journey. Since we found out about Evie's hearing loss - it was like before I had time to seek information it was hitting me in the face! A.l.w.a.y.s. and still is! THE BEST information out there is readily available at my fingertips. THE BEST people, professionals, and support are at our sides right now. It's amazing. Truly Amazing. I know that everything happens for a reason. I know this priceless information we are getting is to HELP Evie become the person she needs to be. A Wonderful Person. A Unique Person. A Beautiful Person, inside and out

It's hard to imagine that Braden and I have been sent such a precious jewel from Heaven! I thank Heavenly Father each and every day! We are SO blessed! What a beauty queen for a daughter, right!?

EVA (Update on Miss E)

OK, I'm feeling like I need to update everyone on the latest with our Evie girl! Last week we spent 3 out of 5 days in Salt Lake City @ Primary Children's! UGH! Longest 3 days ever . . . for all of us! We found out some 'news', good news, not great news, hard news, confusing news, etc etc etc. Here is how it all went down! Day 1 of 3: Evie had an MRI of her brain/ears to see if there is anything structurally wrong with her inner ears. After the MRI, while in recovery, they did another Auditory Brain stem Response test. Both of these tests are done while your child is sedated :( Probably spent a good 7 hours there that day!
Day 2 of 3: We met with a Geneticist and her ENT, where they explained to us that Evie has a moderate hearing loss in both ears AND has LVA (Enlarged Vestibular Aqueduct). It's this tiny little tube in our ears, and hers is enlarged, aiding in the cause of her hearing loss (picture @ bottom). The good news, is that this only effects the ears. We don't have to worry about her eyes or any other kind of syndromes associated with hearing loss. The bad news is that this can be progressive. The overwhelming part is that it can progress SUPER fast, super slow or not at all - we just have to play the 'waiting game'! I'm praying that for her it doesn't progress at all!!! Just as we were leaving the hospital the doctor called Braden's cell phone and says, "I just got a call from radiology, please come back!" Then we find out that her MRI showed some 'spots' on her brain, they didn't know what they were so they ordered a CT scan immediately! Talk about roller coaster! Since we knew Evie wasn't going to 'hold completely still' for 5 minutes while getting the x-ray they had to sedate her AGAIN! This time it was the worst for us because she was awake but totally out of it! She started giggling and trying to wave at us and I just wanted to pick her up and cry! The test results showed that it was 'nothing' . . .
Day 3 of 3: Hearing aid evaluation. This was SO hard for me. Harder than I thought it would or could ever be. The audiologist kept saying, "This is the 'fun' part, picking out colors and ear molds!!" It really wasn't fun at all. I had a hard time picking colors and getting into it. Which is really hard for me to even admit, but it's the truth. That's when all of this became a reality for me. My sweet little baby has to wear these hearing aids for the rest of her life. I felt sorry for Evie a good portion of the way home that day. Then I started thinking about the past few days - while we were waiting for Evie's MRI there was this lady in the waiting room who was feeding her baby through a feeding tube with syringes. Now that is a lifetime commitment if I ever saw one! Evie's hearing loss is seriously nothing she or I can't handle! Worst case, she losses her hearing completely, we have options! 100% deaf people with cochlear implants actually HEAR! Pretty freaking amazing.

Evie will have her pink/glitter hearing aids Nov. 4th, the day before she turns the big 1 year old!

Life is SO crazy! (Random nothings)

Lately I feel like we're ALWAYS 'On The GO'! I feel like I can never catch my breath! Evie time, work work work, Braden's sports (right now it's b-ball and football), tons of quilts/quilting, cleaning house, appointments for Evie, Evie's 'hearing consultant' comes over, etc etc etc! Eeek!
I usually handle stress VERY well! Which, is super awesome for me! My mind can usually wrap around all of it somehow, but my body . . . NOPE, not having this stress! So, have this lovely sore throat, head ache and body aches! YES! We're actually on the up and up now though! SO glad!

AND who said Evie could turn 1 so fast! That's completely unfair! SO I'm throwing her the best 1st birthday any one's ever seen! I'll have to post pictures of these adorable pict. frames I'm making for it :) :) And Christmas . . . whaaa!!!!???? When did summer sneak away? TOO weird!

Can I also just say that I need to diet/exercise . . . in a bad way! I tried the HCG drops . . . for a week! In my defense, I think that diet is too extreme for someone trying to lose a smaller amount of weight. The hardest part about it for me was the lack (NO) of carbs. I love bread . . . with a sick freaking passion! If there was a bread diet I would do it in a heart beat! Anyone see a problem here . . . ya, I know! So if anyone knows a good diet (that is logical) let me know! I love Weight Watchers, but with all the chaos in our lives right now I doubt I'd be very faithful to the 'weighing in' once a week - which is the only reason I do good on that diet in the first place!

Sorry to rant and rave! :) Sometimes it does a girl good! AND Even thought our life is crazy, I really wouldn't change a thing (except to be skinnier)! I believe we are given different experiences in life to better ourselves.

Soak up the good times, learn from the hard times and always be thankful for the many blessings we have!

ENT (Exciting News, Thanks!) or Ear, Nose and Throat . . .

Evie and her daddy @ the doctor {love her face}

So Evie had an appointment with an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist on Friday, October 8th! We weren't even sure why we were going to him before getting hearing aids, we were just following directions! Supposedly her ABR results were consistent with fluid in her middle ear, which was confusing to me because I think they would have seen that before now! BUT that was not the case, anyways. So we're in the waiting room and thinking, 'ok, they'll call us any minute now', well, right about that same time, Evie decides to poop her pants! YAY!

Braden: Is she . . .

Whitney: Yep

We just started laughing. We took our stinky babe into the bathroom and she yelled and screamed the whole time we were holding her down on the changing table! Nightmarish!

We finally get called in to Dr. Parks office! His 'assistant' came in and wanted us to give him a little 'history' of Evie. When we told him about all her 'bells and whistles' he was shocked! He couldn't believe her vocabulary and alertness. He said he wanted us to have a behavioral test and another OAE done before we saw the doctor. As it turns out, there was an audiologist available to do one right then! The {impatient} audiologist did the OAE in Evie's RIGHT ear and she P.A.S.S.E.D . . . . . she's never passed. She PASSED!!!!! :o) She even did a little better in her left ear too!

So we went back to Dr. Parks office and he didn't really do all that much. He pulled some ear wax out, which Eve HATED and then told us some amazing news! He said that he thinks her right ear is better than what we've been told. Possibly, not certainly, a perfectly normal hearing ear! SUPER GREAT! {It gets better} She may not need hearing aids at all! Even though she is severly deaf in her left ear, if her right ear turns out to be fine, they don't usually put a hearing aid on the bad ear if there is a good ear. He said it's like a person who is blind in one eye and see's perfect in the other. Why wear glasses? You're still going to use your good eye to see.

SO, just FYI, I'm not getting my heart set on Evie not having hearing aids. I think it still is a possibility and I am totally ok with that! BUT it would be really neat if she didn't need them!

We are going back out to Primary Children's in 2 weeks for another ABR . . . sad (I hate seeing Evie be sedated) and they will do an MRI of the brain at the same time! Isn't technology cool! Yes, it is! Then the next day we'll go back to Dr. Parks office to talk about the results of the tests and see what the best solution is.

I felt like I was prepared this time to hear whatever they had to throw at us. I'm glad it was finally something good! Even if hearing aids end up being the best option, I'm happy that she is hearing better in her right ear.



Evie did get some pretty cute things out of this trip, if nothing else! We got some super cute things for her 'Pinkalicious' 1st birthday party! I went a little overboard shopping for 'Evie clothes' . . . :) When we were @ the checkout Braden told the cashier that we weren't going to have enough money to buy food now . . . . hahaha He loves to make a fool out of me!

Evie Grace is 11 Months Old! (wait, what!?)

I know, I say it every time . . . but I still don't believe it! How do they grow up so fast!? I can't believe that Miss Evie is almost ONE whole YEAR old! I'm trying to wrap my head around it! This past month has been a BUSY one! Evie is always on the move and it's so fun {exhausting, but very fun}! We LOVE our little bundle of spunk! This is the funnest age!

A "few" things about Evie @ 11 months old:

• She LOVES her da da SO much! We wait on the front porch for him to get home, and when he pulls into the driveway she almost hyperventilates! {Braden LOVES it} Then she won't go back to ma ma for a good hour or so! She even has to get in the shower with him or it's CRAZY Evie!
• Evie points at people/things and names them {ie: da da, ma ma, grrma, grrpa, bar aka car}
• She has 3 (almost 4) teeth! They are the biggest 'baby' teeth I've ever seen! OUCH!
• She eats anything you put in front of her! Even lemons!
• She's SO happy!
• She climbs the stairs!
• She waves and says, "Bye, Bye" like a pro! And does this at least 50+ times a day!
• LOVES being outside! Once we're out there it's hard to get her back inside without a fit! {likes eating dirt, playing in dirt, playing in my flower pots, picking/ eating grass}
• Her pretty hair is finally coming in . . . THICK too! I'm loving having a little hair on that head to curl!
• Understanding simple commands, like, "Evie, throw the ball!" and, "Give ma ma the keys!"

I usually have to stop myself, because this list goes ON AND ON! As far as the hearing loss goes, we have an appointment with an ENT this weekend! CAN'T WAIT! But she seems to be staying caught up, I still have a hard time believing she's hard of hearing! Kathy Johnson, Evie's hearing consultant, came over two times last week! She's such a sweet lady! She's so cute with Evie and told us so much good information! I'm glad to have resources like her!

Well, until next time . . . {which will be weird} because Evie will be ONE whole YEAR old, hopefully I'll get some other posts in before then!

Also, thinking about having a "Pinkalicious" 1st birthday party for Miss Evie! All things pink! Or maybe pink polka dots and monkeys! Or maybe a cupcake theme! Or who knows! Any fun ideas?