Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Pumpkin Patch 2014

This year on October 18th, we went to a Fall Festival at a church not too far from our house.  They had a pumpkin patch along with some rides.  The girls enjoyed it.  It was a very sunny and warm day.  Not at all feeling like Fall here in Houston, Texas.  That's Texas, but I love it!

Kayla, Rachel and Haley

Rachel
Haley
Kayla

The girls loved jumping in the bounce house.  My girls just love to jump!


Kayla and Rachel

Kayla

Daddy riding a ride with Haley


Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Under the stars at Brazos Bend State Park

We went to Brazos Bend State Park on October 17 for Thomas's work party.  This state park is a little less than an hour away from Houston and is know for the alligators and the observatory.  We fortunately didn't see any alligators, but we did get to see the observatory and gaze at the billions of twinkling stars.  Living in Houston its hard to see all the beautiful stars due to the bright city lights, but at this park the stars were stunning.  I, of course took my camera and tripod and took some pictures of the stars.  In fact I had been wanting for a while to take pictures of the stars.  I just needed to get away from the big city.  This was the perfect opportunity.

Love the reflection off the pond
In this pic you can see some of the milky way

Billions of stars

I did take some pictures of the girls before the sun set:

Haley
Rachel
Kayla

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

September Happenings

I can't believe that September has come and gone!  It went by too fast.  Some things happened during the month of September and of course I didn't get to post them as they happened so here is the low down of our September happenings.

September 13: Houston Dynamo Game - parents night out!  We had the opportunity through the Lighthouse of Houston to go to a Houston Dynamo Game (Houston's soccer team) while all three girls were being watched by staff at the Lighthouse of Houston.  The girls enjoyed playing and swimming while we enjoyed some time together.  

September 16: Rachel had an appointment with a new GI doctor.  She has not seen a GI doctor in quite a while so I thought it was time for a check up.  The doctor recommended to increase Rachel's formula feeds since her rate of weight gain has decreased recently and the total volume of her feeds that she was getting per day was low for her age.  He increased her feeds one ounce per feeding so she is now getting 41 oz per day.  We will increase more if her rate of weight gain is still not where he wants it.

September 21: Rachel was admitted to the hospital.  The day before she went to the hospital she was not feeling good.  She had a fever, was not tolerating her feeds and was in pain.  The next day (the 21st) she was doing worse.  Her neck seemed to be bothering her and it hurt her to move it.  Immediately I thought she might have meningitis.  It scared me.  I called her pediatrician's office and they advised to take her to the ER (Texas Children's hospital).  Once we got to the ER they checked her over and ruled out meningitis.  She had a CT scan of her neck and they found that the lymph nodes in her neck were swollen and that was the cause of her stiff painful neck.  Also Rachel's heart rate was high and they wanted to keep an eye on her so we had to stay overnight in the hospital.  She did get  IV antibiotics and ibuprofen round the clock.  Also her lab work indicated an infection.  Rachel ended up having to stay 2 nights at the hospital.  She is all better and feeling well now.  We still don't know exactly what was the cause of the infection, but we are so glad Rachel is all well now.

Rachel in the ER

Getting the CT scan

Going home (Sept 23rd)

September 22:  Thomas's birthday!  Unfortunately spent his birthday at the hospital with Rachel and I.  His brother and two of his friends were so nice and brought us lunch at the hospital.

Daddy with Rachel on his birthday


September 25:  Haley had her yearly visit to the NOVA clinic at the University of Houston eye institute.  Yearly she is evaluated at this clinic to test her vision and get as best of an understanding as possible of how much she sees.  Her vision is 20/710 with her glasses on.  She can see objects as small as 2 inches in size as well as high contrast items.  We are blessed with the amount of vision Haley does have and grateful for the doctors at the NOVA clinic for getting a good estimate of Haley's vision.  

September 26:  I had the opportunity to go to a day long photography seminar.  It was nice to spend the day learning more about photography.  I learned some new things that I look forward to trying out with my camera.

September 29:  My Birthday!  Another year older :( enough said.  I did have a good day, but it's no fun getting older.  Thomas, I and Kayla went out to lunch at Jason's Deli.  Kayla finally had her very first ice cream cone.  She loved it!  Also I got my yearly cookie cake from the Great American Cookie Company and Thomas was so sweet and bought me some beautiful roses.  I love roses!  I had a nice birthday.



Close up of the roses.  So pretty!

Kayla loving her first ice cream cone