Merry Christmas. Little video of us for you to watch

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Look who's crawling!

We finally got Mariska started in PT (physical therapy) She had her evaluation done on her birthday, poor thing she was so not awake all the way but did pretty well. Misky at the time was not able to get from laying to sitting. So I asked what I could do to help her while we waited to set up the first home visit. They told me not to just pick her up (ops our bad, hehe shh) To roll her a little over to her side hold her arm that's in the air and push her hip back to the ground, then she should put her other arm down and push her self up.

After three days of working with her every time I went to pick her up, I helped her learn to sit up her self. She learned pretty fast once the parents knew how to really help.

We plan to have PT twice a month come to our house and work with her for 45 mins. The last visit was the same day as her RSV shot so she was a little grumpy. We now put things in her way so she cant scooter on her little tush. Yup, she's a butt scooter, and is rather fast. (I'll post a video once I find my cables)

Last week shes has learned if she wants to get over something shes gotta be on her knees! YIPPY! Shes starting to crawl more and more. At first it was just showing off. (that would be her, showing off in her shy little ways) She would go Super turtle speed. this wells shes getting a little faster and braver.

I have to block her in the living room now, its been down hill once she found shes like to help the dogs eat their food as much as she loves to feed them her food. (that one happened on daddy's watch.. Still love ya babe!) She gets so excited when she things she can get away and into everything, and scoots and a little crawling to any that has buttons or cords. Her personal favourite is the POWER buttons. Gets everyone by surprise. :o)

Shes also starting to wear 12-18 month clothing. Shes still a little small but they work for her. I never really thought about her growing out of her 12 month clothing, she sure showed me.

Tooth #2 played peek-a-boo for a few weeks I think its her to stay. Silly Misky has two little bottom teeth.

Happy late Thanksgiving and an Early Merry Christmas!
Love,
The Anderson's

Mariska's 1st Birthday Party in Pictures

-The Guests-

-Playing and opening Gifts-

-The Cake-


-Miskys Tutu I made for her Birthday. (She also used it for part of her Halloween outfit.)


Thanks everyone that was invited to come, and for spending the day with Mariska and spoiling her. :o) and a special to Anut Helena and her family for leting us have the party in her gorgeous home!

HAPPY 1st Birthday Mariska!

my Look at how fast you have grown! Its been just one year, where has the time gone. You came to us at 6lb 11oz now your 19.5. You get bigger, sweeter, and cuter everyday, all the things that have have happened to you we have always been at your side on your little bumby ride. We're so excited to be your parents and get to help you all the time.


Happy birthday and we love you for all the little and big smiles, all the giggles and grins, for eating your food, for spitting out the paper that's in your mouth when your told, for learning all your new fun things, For picking us to be your parents. We couldn't have asked for anything better then you! We love you sweetheart.

Sedated and still all smiles.

Mariska had her sedated ECHO on Wednesday all and all every thing went pretty well. The day started off by starving her before the visit. She ate when I woke her up in the night for her one last bottle so she wouldnt be grumpy until she could finally eat again.

She loves people so getting to see a ton of people at the hospital helped take her mind off of food. We did the normal weight and height. She's 29.5 inches long and 18.5 lbs. still tall and skinny, now shes started to fill out in more places other then her cute chubby cheeks.

We talked to the PA about the sedation, Misky had a choice of oral or two IV sedation meds. I was all for the oral. If you have to do one less poke I'm all for that. :) The only bad thing about the oral is it tastes HORRIBLE. The all should work for a few hours.


After misky was atached to all the wires and had her icky sedation med it we just waited and for it to start working. Misky was not happy with the poor PA who gave her the med, every time she came in the room she would start to cry like now what?


Misky was so funny. the med has the same effect as being drunk. The poor kid. She started to rock then started to make circles on my lap. Then she started to play Peek-a-boo with the ECHO tech. She had all four of us laughing. They let "her" watch tv until she started to get sleepy. The tech was changing the channel asking her if she like what was on. He got to Pirates of the Caribbean she got excited going OOHhhhh ohhohohohoh and clapping her hands. The closer she was to being asleep the more grumpy she became. It was neat to see her new pluming in her heart. That was the first time I've seen how much different it looks the her norwood heart. Blows my mind to think how it can even work with just half. Truly a miracle!

Once the ECHO was done and the cards we're happy with the picture, the nurse took her blood pressure in both arms when she got to the 2nd arm she woke up! It was like ok I'm done with my nap lets go play, and just as happy as any time when she wakes up. The nurse told us most likely we wont have to stay on the same day surgery floor for very long. :) Sam carried her up to the secound floor. as we were leaving to go up we passed her normal cardo nurse she thought misky was going to be sedated we said she was and boy was she shocked that misky was that awake right after. haha. Misky has always fought the sedation even when she was tiny. One the way up she was loopy and smiling more at every one then normal! once at the 2nd floor they told us since shes awake she just has to drink 4 oz before we can go. Misky was the life of the floor. ALL the nurses came over to see her cause she was being so silly. We gave her some watered down apple juice, witch she loved, as it was her first taste of juice. -later that day the juice was nothing 8 diapers couldnt fix. We had it in a sippy cup but ended up just poring some of it into her bottle. Which also helped water it down even more. She ended up drinking all 8oz! and had a little gram cracker. She was one hungary little girl.

After we checked out we went down to get her x-rays. She got to sit up in the big kid seat this time! She enjoyed that a lot better then having to be layed down on the cold table.

Then we went back to Cardio to talk with Dr. Williams. Dr. W called Dr. Pulver down from up stairs so we got to see both of them. They said the hicup or galup (just a noise) was still there. They didn't find any cause which is good and bad. He heart function is getting BETTER slowly deferentially not worst!!! Her Tricups valve is still leaking but not as much. Dr W used the word normal! I had to joke around with him on that one.


Her cards are still concerned about her heart. But where she looks great, is eating, and putting on weight they are happy over all. She is still a candidate for the Fontan (never really crossed my mind that we might not be...) We'll know more about time frame when we see them in 6 months!!

Pumpkin Patch

On Monday we took Misky to her very first pumpkin patch and hay wagon ride at Day's Farm inLayton. She liked the wagon ride and the little boy that sat next to us, On the way to the pumpkin patch she was saying Ohhhh while looking forward at the pumpkins, we even got a Uht oh from her, it was too cute. once we got to the car and later at home we're pretty proud to thing we found pumpkins big enough to put Misky into.



Mariska also has her sedated echo today..(the 22nd) I'm a little ok really nerves just about the sedated part. It all makes me crazy. We're hoping and praying to find that the hiccup the doctors heard last visit was just a here todaygone tomorrow kind of a thing. Only time will tell.

The things I forgot.

You'll have to see my sister Tanya's blog for some more pictures of camping, the train ride, and the hikes we all went on. Tanya's blog! She took some better picture of the trip...

Misky is waving her arms trying to dance to the "my girl song on the blog" She's such a ham.

The things we have seen and the places we have been

We thought it was time for Misky to finally get a big girl car seat. After searching online for a month I found one I really liked, so off to babies'R'Us, The picture online wasn't the best, but its super cute! not too girly, not too unisex, with a little bit of purple and pink, it was just right!

Now that we don't have out gem protector baby carrier, we finally had to use the dirty seats in the shopping cart... gasp! This was Misky's first time in the cart! See really enjoyed being able to see all around. So much for the late night take the sleeping baby to the store. Life seems like it just got a bit harder. Guess that comes with age.


some pictures of Misky being silly.

We went camping for memorial day weekend at Downata hot springs in Idaho, for a family reunion. The first day the weather was really nice, that first night was pretty cold. The next day was a gorgeous day! But that night was SOooooo cold. Around 4 after I gave misky a bottle I stuffed into bed with us to stay warm. She has two PJ's, a warm coat, and 6! blankets on us. The next day Sunday started off nice, then in the afternoon just after the group lunch the heavens opened up and thought we needed some rain so it rained and rained rained buckets of water. It was so bad with the rain and wind that we had to strap our tent with thoughts belts you use with the ratchet..(not sure what they are called) to the fence and add 3 more stakes, It was a scary. With the rain with the help of the high winds pelted rain into our tent as well as my sisters. It was BAD.. It was going threw our tent fly and dripping threw the mesh.. awwww and helped wash or dampen half of the things inside our tent.. uhhhg, so that night we crashed with my grandparents camper with them and a few of my cuisons. So we were nice and warm.

Other then the weather we had a nice time seeing family and visiting and eating did I say eating? felt like about half of what we did. haha. Misky was really pretty good. Loved being out side 4 days.

This is what I found when I uploaded my pictures, haha two girlies being silly.

I put Misky in the box to keep her busy. It was cute her in this tiny box.

We (my mom, and sisters and her family) thought it would be fun to ride the new commuter train to salt lake then we went to build-a-bear. The Front Runner was fun and pretty fast.

HEhehe. Hailey and Mariska with the bears wings. Hahah Misky wasn't sure what to think about it. had a face like Mom this is kind of yucky feeling, and how could you put this thing on my head?

At the reunion they have an auction this year cause of the rain it turned into more of a big yard sell. There were some stuffed animals every time we should this lion to misky she would scream and get all excited so we had to get him. Its been a few weeks and she still loves him. Hes a puppet and had a box that roars like a lion.

I did Misky's hair. She held still pretty well. Something fun and different.

Misky in her jumperoo. Tanya brought it with her. This was her first time in the jumperoo, she wasn't sure if she wanted to put her feet on the ground so she held them up. It was FUNnny. She was getting pretty tired when we put her in. Now she really likes to jump. Once she got the hang of it she started to jump away which didn't take long. The first week after when we tried having her stand on her legs she would start to jump, haha. Now that shes had a for a few weeks she likes to be in it just not so much getting in to the jumperoo. Its also becoming one of her new favorite things to fall asleep in around nap time. So cute.

This is one of her favorite past times. I fill her tub with toys and she leans it over and pulls them out one by one and throws them all around her.

OHHHHhhh Sam.... what have you done to my laptop..... Ok so Sam does work for Dell fixing Notebooks (no longer called laptops, lol) We we're having some issues with it over heating, it was fine but just got hotter and hotter. So he called gave up with the waiting in line and talked to someone in a chat to get the part replaced it was kind of fun to watch. He sat there and told the guy what he needed to say in the report and what all the files were to get the part. Aww I finally go to see him in action at work. :)

Have to say it was a little sad to see "my" notebook taken apart in front of my very eyes.

Here's Misky and my mom weeding the Raspberries. I had a little fun with my good old camera, and thought maybe if I want a new camera that I could just at least find new ways to play with the one I have. So this is me begin bored.

We fed Misky some spaghetti for the first time, She loves the sauce but not the noodles. And she has loved all the Fruits from Grandma and pa B's backyard. She's started to say Dadaa dadaa, sad I know, I keep telling her nooo say Mama, but she'll just look at me and smile.

She's starting to clap a little when shes happy. I dont remember if posted this news or not, We had her sitting on the kitchen floor while we cook, I would look back to see what she was doing or trying to find to eat, every time I looked back I thought I think she moved closer. Sure enough she would lean forward and push on the ground and push her self backwards. Its a sight to see. She tries on carpet but doesn't go any where. So maybe she'll be more mobile before we know it! But if not I don't mind kind of nice to have a baby that I can leave in one area of the house and find her still in the same room. New uhggg new thing has been screaming.. like shatter glass, blow out ear drum kind of a scream... I tell my self its just a phase its just a phase... I hope, haha we keep telling her no Shhh and cover her mouth, but most of the time she does it is when shes super excited, like at the store or when she sees us eating. ohh boy. I hope its just working her voice so she can say mama more. Maybe the day she gets teeth she will say mama.

Right now she's being silly. I'll clap or make a face then she'll try to clap or laugh and turn her head to the side and give me a closed mouth grin. haha what cutie.

A Gallup

Today Mariska had a cardiology visit at PCMC, with doctor Williams and doctor Pulver. I had our two x-rays (I couldnt see any teeth moving yet, haha) (They *the doctors* looked really good - said from both doctors) Then did the weight and height, O2 levels, blood pressure, and an EKG (I was a little suprised on this, didnt thing we would have that done this time, -it reads the heart waves which is printed on paper for the doctors to see)
Backing up to last week at our peds visits numbers. Weight 15.8 lbs . 26.5 inch. head circ 17 inchs. and O2 was 88. So that puts her weight in the 5-10 percentiles, her lenght around 30% and her head circ 50%. All of which we're super happy with.

Back to this afternoon. Her heigth was still 26.5, weight was 16.8!!! (She gained a POUND in a week! She has been eating really well, almost all 4oz every bottle and a sometimes a little more! shes been a little piggy this week, haha.) (we changed her diaper just before we left so a hour ago or so and she had a big cute bow on her head, but that doesnt add that much hehe.) Her O2 stats rounded out to be 85. The nurse said her blood pressure was a good number (I forgot to look). She only cried when we put her down to see how long she was. Not even when she had the EKG stickies pulled off her skin! What a brave little girl.

Doctor Pulver came in and listened to her heart, checked out her x-rays. We talked about formula and eating (we makered that she gets a little sweaty when she eats, but only if its really hot in the house, so I dont really think that counts) I told him she eats more of I only fortity her bottles with a half a scoop and not more then a full scoop, if I do more then that she has a hard time eating and thats when she does sweat, he seemed a little surprised about that info. (I listen to her. :) -I still think the throwing up thing only happens when she has over eaten.) He heard a gallup when he was listening to her heart and said her liver felt like a 3 (I think a little big or low.. or both... I forget) He asked how she was doing we told her great shes such a happy baby, shes sitting up and likes to roll on the ground. :) He changed the dose of her meds to fit her weight and wanted to see us back in about 3 months.
Then Doctor Williams came in did pretty much the same things. They decited that her liver felt like a 2, so they went with a 2-3 on the paper work. Mariska wanted to say a little more when Doc W came in so I gave her a sucker (in the wrapper still) to her to play with to keep her still, lol, boy oh boy what candy can do. Back to what I was saying. They said the gallup doesnt really mean a bad thing sometimes it can be there one day and gone the next, they just want to watch it and make sure its nothing. They said she has great color, pulses in her feet, all of her numbers are just fine, shes happy and is growing, so they arent that worried. PHEWwwww! If it something then we just have to play with her meds, not a cath or surgry :-) So we go back in 6 weeks instead of 3 months. Ekk. Better to be safe.

So in 6 weeks we will have a sudated (sp?) ECHO, :( It wasnt until on the way home that the being put under part hit me. I dont want to be put out for just an echo, but then I thought I dont think she would hold still for over 30 mins. for them to get the pictures she wanted. uhgg. I'm not sure if that is a over night thing or just a half a day where we go home after she wakes up all the way and eats something. hmm Thats something I will asked when they call to set the date. Wish us luck that its just something here today and not the next.

To all our friends at the hospital we wanted to come and see all of you guys, but didnt thing it was a good idea to take Misky into the PICU. But we sent our hugs, thoughts and prayers.

Hugs The Anderson's

New heart for our friend Grace

Last night the Andersen's got the call, They have a heart. They rushed to the hospital, did all the paper work. waited most of the night for Gracey to have the surgery. Got to love being on hospital time. The surgery started 5:30am and finished at a little after 4 pm. They still havent seen Grace but should be aloud to see in in the next hour. Onces shes stable in the PICU.
What a blessing. I'm asking for prayers to be sent to the Andersen's and the family that lost their little one to give Grace a new start at live.

Hugs

The Anderson's

A dear friend will be missed

Its been a few weeks now and I just need to get this out. My heart is still saddened from learning of the passing a few weeks ago of our friends heart baby Isaac. He I started to follow him and his family's journey with HLHS when he was just a few months old. We got the chance to met him and his awesome parents when Mariska had her glen surgery done. They are amazing parents that made the most out of the time they had with their little one. I drew a lot of spiritual strength from then as I watched the positive way they looked at everything. They are so dear to our heart. His family fought hard to get their little guy home and now he has gone home just not the home they were hoping for. We just want Paul and Jessica to know we're thinking and praying for you!

I have been busy

I thought it was time to put a book together with all of our wedding pictures. Now that its been little over 3 years. (Our anniversary was July 22nd. YAy for us.) I have been kind of putting it off in hopes that the pictures would be come perfect. haha. I know. Our wedding day was a bright sunny day, way to bright. A lot of the pictures are really blown out and white washed. So between our photographers pics and my dads pictures I think the book came out pretty well.

I ordered the book last night so its just a matter of time before its in my hands. I cant wait. Have a look for your self and tell me how you think I did.

Click here to see the book.

or http://community.shutterfly.com/gallery/post/start.sfly?postId=/gallery/1/post/GMGDJgxZuW7lq0bAlrBDnG

What we have been upto...

One Saturday the 2ND we went to a base picnic at Hill Air Force Base. It was my dads reserves party, They have food, military awareness booths, and games for the kids, they also had some giant bouncers, they were pretty cool, and a few other neat things to check out.

Mariska is "holding my drink"... Don't worry its not open. haha It was nice and cold and she was starting to get to warm. She cooled her tongue off, It was to funny, She realllllly wanted to hold the can.

The four of us went to the zoo on Wednesday! After we went and got Carmeled apple from the Rocky Mountain chocolate factory at the Gateway mall. The Apple pie one is sooooo good.

Sam, Mariska, Chris and Michael (My good friends hubby and little boy) Mariska was so excited to see him. haha
Those monkeys looks like skunks.
Us by the White alligator
Tying on silly hats.

Yesterday Sam wanted to go fishing. We went up to a small lake, its on the way to Logan. We got the boat and all of fishing stuff all ready to go, got Misky in a life jacket that looks huge on her, I sat in the boat with her and ended up getting out, she really hated the vest. We went for a walk while Daddy did his thing. So much for her first time on a boat. haha. We're looking for a baby life jacket, so if you see one would you let me know. :) the smallest we have seen is for 30lbs and under. Which is still super big. She might have to wait until shes bigger in a few years before she can have any boating fun.

Waiting in the car, and hiding from the bugs.

Yep our boat... ok inflatable raft. tee hee.

It does have a motor you just cant see it.
Playing with cat tails.