My Dad Update

I thought I should give a quick update on my dad, since some have been wondering. He had his surgery on Thursday and it went really well. Apparently the tumor was contained, so it hadn't spread anywhere else, as far as they know. They give tumors grades I guess (this is different from stages) and his was a grade 4, which means that the cells were pretty aggressive and he is at a higher risk for it occuring again. Though he could very well never have them pop up again. They will scan him very closely, every 3 months for the next year. Otherwise, he doesn't need any further cancer treatment like chemo or radiation, so really the news was pretty good considering. He came home on Sunday and has been getting better each day. We saw him last night and he was moving around a lot better and was looking really good. He goes back in to the doctor on Thursday. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers!! You can keep them coming in hopes that this stays away for good!!

Matt Logelin

I just wanted to share another blog that I follow quite frequently.  Beware if you're going to look at it, you will need to have a box of tissues handy.  I can only look at it on certain days or I'm a wreck.  Long story, he is from Minneapolis but lives in L.A.  A year ago on Tuesday, he had a baby girl, and a year ago on Wednesday he lost his wife.  She passed away the day after her daughter was born of a pulmonary embolism, minutes before she was going to go hold her daughter for the first time.  This is his story about taking on the challenge of giving his daughter the best life he can, the life he knows his wife would've wished for her, and doing it without the love of his life.  It is an amazing story.

www.mattlogelin.com

Dad

Well for those of you that maybe haven't heard, about two weeks ago they found a tumor on my dad's left kidney.  We are in today actually at the hospital and he is in right now getting his kidney removed.  They won't know the extent, if it has spread, etc. until they are done with the surgery.  We are just hoping and praying for the best. 

This man has a trip to China planned that we need to get him all better for so he can go and enjoy.  If you know him, this is really cramping his style right now :)  I will keep posted with what we hear.  Thanks for the thoughts and prayers.  We'll take all we can get.

Avery Update

We have been bad bloggers lately.  I realize it has been almost two weeks.  We've been pretty busy with baseball, pictures, conferences, family, etc.  Avery is doing great.  She had her tube recheck yesterday and one ear looks great and one is still clogged, so we are trying some other drops, go back in two weeks and we'll go from there I guess.  Here is a little video of her from tonight.  Cullen brought home a cool little video thing from school to tape his hitters at baseball and brought it home to show me.  It's pretty cool. 

 This is Avery tonight after we got home from my parents.  It is just before bedtime, and she is pretty tired, but pretty funny!  She has a new word, hello and it is so cute.  She also said Grandpa tonight clear as day at my parents.  It sounded like ba-pa and was so cute.  Of course, she wouldn't do it again.  Cullen has also added the cow to her animal sounds that he likes to try to teach her, and she makes a little moo sound.  Anyway, thought we would give this a try at uploading, since I'm too tired to go through and upload pictures right now.  And yes..she did just get a haircut, and already needs another one.  Wow her hair grows fast.  She also gives kisses here..big, wet ones like she does.  

Some other fun things she has been doing lately are twirling..it is so cute!  She got a fun dress I tried on her about a week ago, and showed her how to twirl.  It is so funny.  She gets her whole body into it.  She still isn't a really big talker, but new words are coming little by little everyday.  She is also totally enjoying spring, or at least what we had of it last week.  We went for a walk or to the park about every single night and the poor girl just cried on Friday when it rained and we couldn't go. I can't wait for summer with her.  Cullen and I were also looking at some old photos tonight and realized she is totally looking like me when I was about that age.  Yes, I can honestly say I loved that.  I see Cullen so much more in her, so it was fun to see some pictures where she totally is looking like me.  So that is what we've been up to.  Enjoy the video!

If the video doesn't work, try this link:

Avery March Update

Tubes Were A Success!!!

Avery is home and the tubes were successful.  She was such a little trooper.  We went to Children's West and it was amazing.  They had so many toys for her play with while we waited, and the nurses and doctors were the best.  It wasn't fun watching her get the gas to be put out, but she did great.  The surgery only lasted about 15 minutes and she came out of the anesthesia just fine.  We are back home, she played hard and was pretty much her normal self, besides the 3 1/2 hour nap she just got up from!  They said she definitely needed them as she had lots of fluid in there.  They said there are 2 different kinds of fluid, a clear/watery kind and a thick glue like.  She had the thick kind, which they said was definitely causing a little hearing loss, so she should be hearing much better now and might be sensitive to noises for awhile.  They did also say sometimes if it comes back it can clog the tubes, so we'll have to wait and see. Hopefully not, we're being optimistic.

I didn't bring my camera, but had my phone, so we took a picture of her in her little hospital jammies.  They were a little too small, but the toddler ones were too big.  She even got to keep her sweet yellow slipper socks!  I'm glad it's over!

Little Miss Personality!

Oh Avery..what a funny girl she is!  Avery has taken to feeding herself.  She will let us help sometimes, but she much prefers to do it herself.  You can imagine what kind of mess this leads too.  After seeing her cousin Conner use a fork last weekend, she thought she should try that too.  Which leads us to dinner tonight...

Tomorrow morning Avery gets tubes put in her ears :(  I'm equally terrified and excited.  I know this will be best for her because the poor thing has ear infections ALL the time.  But I'm terrified for the surgery because she has to totally be put out.  So because of the anesthesia, she can't eat after midnight tonight, so we wanted to be sure she ate well tonight.  So she got a supper full of all her favorite things.  #1 of course is Macaroni and Cheese which she loves, some broccoli (can't figure out why she likes this), and topped off with a nutri-grain bar.  She had lots of pears this morning, which she also loves, so she had a great day!  The girl takes FOREVER to eat if you let her, so of course, we let her go until she was good and done tonight.  I think this may be the messiest she has ever been, and she was just a nut! She was so darn funny.  We had to take some photos!!  Here are a ton of them!!

All done!

Being goofy - laughing at Daddy

Not sure what she was doing here..

Showing off her big girl teeth

Yup..pretty sure I'm full guys!  It worked!

What is this look??

And as if she didn't get enough, topping it off with a nibble of her toes!

Get nakey and coming after me -  there was a bath that came IMMEDIATELY after

Helping sweep the floor after the mess

Saving a little for later

Combing her pretty hair..nice look!

All clean

A day of cousins!

After Conner left today, Dana and Ansley stopped by.  Avery loves to play with Ansley too, so it was a great day with her.  If only we could've had Noah, Kate and Patience up we'd have been all set!  Ans had on this super cute coat and we had to take advantage and snap a few pics.  I thought I'd share this one over here because she is just too pretty not to share!  The camera seriously LOVES this girl!

Cutie Pie Conner!

Here are just a few of Conner from playing today!  He has the biggest blue eyes.  He is such a funny little guy!  I'm so excited he and Avery get to grow up together and be buddies!

Gotta love him on Avery's cool pink and purple horse!

Fun Day with Conner!!

Today Avery's cousin Conner, Grammy and Grandpa Bahn, and aunt Jess came down to hang out and we had so much fun!  Conner is just 6 weeks older than Avery, so it's so fun to watch them interact.  They both like to give kisses, so of course, they gave each other kisses!  They also both give wet kisses, so that was interesting!  Yes, they are cousins, but hey..they will love these pictures years down the road! :)

Goin in for the real thing!

Conner going in for another!

And yet another...

Both kids on Avery's horse!  (Avery had just woke from a nap, hence the bedhead and lack of pants!)

Conner checking out Avery's tent...She and Grandpa were in there, but he was having NONE of it.  He did not like the tent!

Putting the kids to work..Conner on the vacuum and Avery was sweeping the floor :)

Reading a story with Grandpa

Fun with Grammy