Sunday randomness

Our smallest bundle of joy is inching toward the big 2. The last 21 months have flown by! It won't be long til I can no longer say my baby is 1 and a half!

While she seems to be far from exhibiting the typical "terrible twos", (so far) she sure is entertaining! 

" I'm not a baby, I'm a toddler" is heard quite often in response to anyone that calls her baby.

Little does she know, she will always be my baby!

 

Such a sweet girl

Playing Play-Doh

 

Best buds

 

Copy cat

 

In other exciting news,we survived our first family vacation! The girls did great in the car, both ways, and it's hard to believe all that packing and planning is done and over with.
Even though it rained 2 of the 4 days we were there, we got to see some beautiful scenery, experience an awesome aquarium, and enjoy a couple hours in the pool.We managed to survive the trip without any injuries, major tantrums or illnesses. Despite the rain, and touristy prices (of everything) it was a success!
Here are a few pics to highlight our trip!

 Violet with her metal man friend

Daddy with his girls ( Vi is busy on the phone)

 Rapids in cade's cove

 Braving the raindrops

 Stopping to pet some wild horses

 Church from the 1800s

Elijah Oliver Cabin

 Water feeding into the water wheel

Where they make corn starch

 At the top of the sky lift

 

 Holding daddy's moonshine



On the road and letting go

Good morning friends and thanks for checking in with us, most importantly with Miss Violet.

 Today is a special day! It is Sunday, (as you know)and Father's Day, (as Im sure your aware)but more exciting, it is the day we set off on a family road trip with all 5 of us in tow!! For the first time since Violet came along we are taking a family vacation, (besides the lake) which means Tahoe packed up,and hitting the road for 8 or so hours! We are about 2 hours out as I'm writing this, with all 3 kids asleep, so far so good!

 Pulling out of our driveway

One hour later

While we are all looking forward to spending a few days away from home, swimming, sight seeing and enjoying some family time, I can't shake an odd feeling. Of course there are normal questions...Did I bring everything? Will the kids make the car trip without any tantrums? Will our hotel be as nice as the pictures? 

However traveling with Violet is still a learning experience for us, so our worries expand a bit further...Did we remember the breathing machine? Do we have enough of all of her meds, plus back ups? Are we sure there's a fridge in the room for meds and PediaSure? Did we bring enough Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer?

Confidently I can say "Check" to all the above. 

I am as prepared as I can possibly be, and while this is a learning process, and may take up more cargo room and a bit more time, that's ok. It is all about making this a memorable experience for Violet, ( & the other girls ) and letting her be as normal of a kid as possible, while still safeguarding her from germs.

Recently one of her doctors corrected me as I was telling him how difficult it is to plan a vacation because of the things Vi can not do.He told me she can do anything we allow her to.....Anything? But... what about the germs and risk of infection???

He made me think a bit and realize that everyone has their own level of comfort and we may need to re-evaluate ours as Vi gets older.

We have done an infallible job of keeping her out of public places, and away from germs the first year and a half of her life, but it's only getting harder. As she is getting older she is more aware of when she's being left behind, and talk about a heartbreaking cry! More then that though is the importance of letting her have new experiences and enjoy being a kid. One day she will have to go to school, and will go on a plane, but we are not there yet. So we are starting with baby steps....play dates, zoo trips, and now a family vacation. 

So with fingers crossed, and hand sanitizer I

in place, we are closing our eyes and making the leap! We hope the reaults will be more then worth it!

Stay tuned for lots of pics during our adventure!!

What went on while away

Wow I can not believe it has been almost a month since the last post. Yikes! Somehow time has just escaped me, yet April seems so far away. I feel like I may have lost some followers with this gap between updates, but let me explain....

April 17, 2013,  aka the last posting, happened to be a few days after our super successful Victory for Violet fundraiser for CF, also the beginning of the final 3 weeks of my nursing classes, and the inception of our fundraising madness for the Great Strides walk, while also ( may I add) at the same time planning a super exciting weekend away/bachelorette party for one of my best friends.



In the middle of all that exciting stuff were about 3 consecutive weeks of runny noses, coughs, and all over crankiness ( and I'm only referring to the kids at this point) From April 17th until today we have racked up 1 late night paging/texting of our pediatrician, 1 STAT X-Ray and visit to the CF clinic, and not 1 but 2 visits (with both girls in tow) to the pediatrician. The 1st to diagnose them with their 1st ever ear infections and sending us home with an Antibiotic, and yesterday as a 2 week check up to make sure said infections were cleared up, but then ending up suggesting Ava has allergies and sending us home with yet another medication to try........to make a long story short, 2 days before the Amoxicillian was gone the runny noses, sneezing, coughing returned.

At the dr April 30th

Still acting semi-normal

And you thought I was just busy sitting out in the sun didn't you?? Well, we did manage to have some fun in the midst of our "unhealthy episodes"

 Just relaxing with her shades on

Being silly

 

Having a picnic at the park

 

Picnic on the deck

 

 Our family

minus the guest of honor,who stayed home to avoid picking up any germs from her friends

 

 Victory for Violet

 

We also participated in the annual Great Strides Walk for Cystic Fibrosis. Victory for Violet was again a large team, with over 80 members this year. The weather was almost perfect this year,  and our team of purple people succeeded in raising almost $15,000 for just the walk alone! Combined with the 22k from our wine event and the money raised for last year's walk, we are proud to have raised over $70,000!!!! That is SO much money!! And that will be able to be put into SO much research so that HOPEFULLY one day we won't get to do any more fun events, because all the sick boys and girls with CF will be happy, and healthy and cured senior citizens!!

 

Tomorrow is Violet's bi-monthly CF Clinic appointment,the one scheduled before our visit in April. Just like every visit,she will get weighed, measured, listened to, visited by the nurse, doctor, respiratory therapist, dietitian and social worker. She will be mapped on the growth scale, and her med routine will be examined, and most excitingly, we will discuss her eating and toileting patterns. No X-Ray or throat culture should be needed, so hopefully it will be a tear free visit!

The Little Sis is getting so BIG!!

 

 

 If she weighs as much as our bathroom scale says then I think she is gonna get a green light for sure tomorrow! ( I am convinced it measures everyone 5# heavy though)

 



Wine event recap.

Program from our 1st ever CF event, hosted by team Victory for Violet

 

Friday April 12, 2013 was an awesome night for us. A landmark in our fundraising efforts to find a CURE for CF. After months of hard work, planning and bombarding friends and family for donations and auction items, we are happy to report, it was all worth it!

Our name tags for the evening

Andy & Me, Violet's proud parents

 

We are still unsure on the exact number of tickets we sold, but we are certain it was a great turn out!The club was full, the energy was high, and the night was enjoyable!

 One table of auction items

 

 Dessert wines and chocolate beer table

 

 Table 2 of auction items

 Table 3 of items

including an original print and tattoo work by Daaron Davis

 and my favorite Violet painting ever, which was the object of a bidding war

 Centerpieces

 All set up ready for guests

White wine table

There were a lot of our friends, and family, a bunch of our parents' friends, friends of their friends and even some strangers who read about our cause in the paper. It was very endearing to meet people who are touched by Violet's story, whether they have a connection or not. It is also very humbling to see so many people, many of which have never even met our daughter, go out of their way to show support for her.

Awesome! Fun times! Great memories! Lots of pics!

 

 Me with friends

 Andy's family

 Andy with his brothers and best friend

Me & Candie, a friend and volunteer

 My siblings

 

 Me with Rachael, a friend who got 10 volunteers from Kohl's

( just another reason to shop there)

Me with my sister Lindsay and one of my sister-in-laws, Amanda

 

And even better then that, the event was a success!

The grand total amount of funds raised was over $22,000! Combined with our total raised from Great Strides last year that is over $57,000 team Victory for Violet has raised!

A BIG Thank you to my mom, Bonnie and everyone who volunteered, donated, bought tickets, sold tickets,sponsored, or gave auction items, and especially those of you that traveled here for the night. We appreciate every last one of you!

 

 Beautiful cups made and donated by the Steninger family!!

Our team t-shirts

I think it is safe to say, if you missed the event this year, you missed out...but luckily this will now be an annual event. We will see you next Spring!

 

Of course it wouldn't be a post without pics of the namesake....

 Violet, pretty in purple

 Trying so hard to do it herself

 

And by the way..that Violet painting...the war was won, by my mom.

Who graciously gave the painting to us!

Looks great in our hall!