A Visit the the Aquarium

Last weekend we went on a family outing to the aquarium. Lexi and I are members, and we had a $2 off coupon for Terrell, so we got to go for only $7! Lexi loves the aquarium, and waves "hi" to all the fishies. She even tries to snuggle with them. :)  Last time I went, I didn't get to go to the SuperHero Animal Exhibit, which was pretty awesome! We can't wait to go back!

Terrell's Favorite Exhibit: The Sting Rays (you could touch them!)

Kellie's Favorite Exhibit: The octopus and the sea turtle

Lexi's Favorite Exhibit: The penguins

Yes, he made this face on purpose....silly husband.

Cool penguins, Lex!

She went over and snuggled on the penguin picture :)

Meet Penguin

This is Penguin. Penguin is Lexi's very favorite "snuggly" (aka stuffed animals). She snuggles with it every naptime, every night, and every...all the time! She loves him. Lexi has had Penguin for quite awhile now and ever since we got him, Penguin = Love. He is definitely a well-loved snuggly! I've washed him a bazillion times, and his wing needs medical attention.

I will definitely be buying more of these to keep "in stock" when Penguin rips his wing off (it's happening).

Lexi's Cast

On Tuesday, Lexi got her first round of serial casting. She did great - it only took an hour instead of the 2 they had blocked out. The casting is to help post-botox and make her foot/leg/ankle forced into a certain position for a week at a time. She will be re-casted on this coming Tuesday, and then possibly again the following Tuesday. Each time they take the cast off, her range of motion will be tested prior to applying a new cast.

She's handling it pretty well for a 1 1/2 year old! And of course, 3 hours after we got her cast on, we had to go BACK to get another cast on because she somehow got out of her first one.....silly kid.

Below are pictures of her with her FIRST cast that she took off. I'll post more of her current one later, because it is MUCH cooler! :) It weighs a bazillion pounds, but she keeps on truckin! Some of the pcitures is the sandal boot that she can wear over her cast, but since it's an XS and still twice as big as her casted foot, we just put her in a sock now!

Lexi's Treatments

Last Tuesday, Lexi received her Botox treatments on her right side. This treatment will need to be done every 3-6 months for awhile until they determine otherwise. The Botox helps weaken the muscle of high tone kiddos and allows them to function more comfortably and to get their muscles working better. Lexi received 3 shots in her right calf, 2 in her right ankle, 2 in her forearm, and 1 in her thumb. Poor girl! She did great though! Lexi is so silly - we were going to meet her in the recovery room at Primary's and she is sitting up calling "MMMMaaaammmmaaaa!" As soon as we went over she pulled herself up to me (still attached to the monitors and everything!!!) and was ready to go! Of course, we had to wait awhile, since she was put under and just had her treatments - what a trooper! She's doing really well and has her sore moments, but I'm so proud of her!

Lexi and Terrell on the way into the Primary Children's Outpatient Center

Lexi in the recovery room.

Lexi's Braces

A few weeks ago, Lexi finally got her braces! She does so great with them and they are helping wonderfully!

She has 3 braces: daytime leg brace, thumb brace (day and night), and her nighttime stretch splint brace. She wears her daytime leg brace for 4-6 hours a day. She always has to have shoes on while she is wearing them. Unfortunately, the shoes that are recommended are wicked pricey; they recommend brands like Nike/Sketchers/Etc because they are shoes that are made well, last a long time, and actually come in sizes with the same shoe (meaning that any other types of brands stop at kids size 6, and switch to a different style of shoe for size 7+). So, we headed to the mall and Lexi got some Nikes! Another downer of the shoes is that her left foot wears a normal size for her, and the right foot wears about 2 sizes bigger, so we have to buy 2 pairs - different sizes - of the same shoe! Shucks! We purchased the normal size a little big, so she had room to grow. She has tennis shoes and sandals. Lucky girl - $100+ worth of shoes for only 2 (well, 3 technically) pairs! :) Surprisingly, it is cheaper to buy the Nike/Sketcher/Etc type of shoes than it is to buy the shoes made specially for Dafos (brand/type of braces she has)! We call her thumb brace her "High Five Brace" because it forces her right hand into the high five position. She thinks the brace is pretty cool to give high fives with! Not pictured below is her Nighttime stretch splint, which she doesn't not do very well with. That brace looks essentially like the daytime one, but it has more of a hinge and 2 straps that you can pull across the leg in an X shape to stretch the ankle/leg any degree you want. Other than that brace, she is doing so great with them - we are so proud! She even tries to put them on herself! What a cutie! Of course, we got hot pink ones - what girl WOULDN'T want hot pink?!?!

I can't believe I posted this picture, but the story is great!

While in Iowa, my amazing sister-in-law Lindsay cut my hair for me! LOVE IT! She did whatever she wanted to and it turned out great because, yeah, she's that good.

I also decided to lighten my hair to a light brown.

We bleached it 5 times (to get rid of the black before dying it brown) and this is the color it came out as:

That's right. We bleached it 5 times (4 with Linds, 1 with Jodi) and it is STILL BLACK! Guess I'm destined to have black hair.

Maybe soon I will try to lighten it again....again....again.

According to my dad I "must have dyed it with permanent marker"!

PS, no, that is not my hair cut. It's my hair pinned up to dye.

Let's just say my hair did DIE, but not DYE. Whose hair can survive 5 bleachings in a row? 

That's right, my friend...mine.

Thanks Mom and Dad, for good hair!

Easter 2011. Dying Eggs.

Whoops. Talk about a late Easter post.

Lexi in her Easter outfit:

 Dying eggs

Off to find some eggs!

Easter basket hunt pictures, coming soon :)

Megan's Wedding

Last week I flew out to Iowa for my best friend Megan Frandsen (now Schmelzer)'s wedding. It was a fabulous wedding and I couldn't be happier for them!

Lexi and I before the wedding

Lexi at the reception

 Lexi and Aunt Megan

 YAY!

The wedding at the Living History Farms