First Babies, Now Boobies

I'm starting to feel like a professional fundraiser. Now that March for Babies is behind us for the year (did I mention our team raised over $10,000?!?), it's time to start fundraising for my 3-Day debut.

My friend Karanae and I (and possibly one other friend) are participating in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day walk this November. It will be a first for both of us, and something I've been wanting to do for several years now. I've been so worried about the $2,300 that each walker must raise that I haven't even thought about the 60 miles we will be walking. Yes, that's right folks. My reward for raising $2,300 is getting to walk SIXTY miles over the course of 3 days, sleeping in a tent each night following a 20 mile walk, and don't even get me started on the shower situation. Those of you who know me well know how I love my showers, and the "shower/sink truck for washing up" I've read about online just doens't sound like it's going to cut it, so this could be interesting. Hmmmm....I wonder why nobody else wants to do this with us. I really don't have much of a choice in the matter now that I went and put it on my 30x30 list for all to see. If I don't do it now, I'll look like a total slacker. By the way, I just realized I still haven't come up with my last two goals, so I guess at this point, 28x30 would be more accurate. But I digress... In all seriousness, this is for such a great cause, and I've heard great things from past participants, so I'm super exicted not only to experience the 3-Day for myself, but to do my part in finding a cure for breast cancer, even if it means blisters and greasy hair for 3 days. ;-)

I'm trying to get creative with my fundraising efforts since I just begged everyone I know to donate to March of Dimes (see mention of $10,000 above). We started things off with a Pampered Chef fundraiser party last week that made $800 for our 3-Day team. Woohoo!! Thanks to everyone who placed an order. You guys rock!!

Our next fundraiser is a garage sale planned for June 26th at my house. If you have anything you are willing to donate to the sale, we will happily accept it.

I will keep you posted on additional fundraisers. Until then, online donations of any size will be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks for your support!

Happy Mother's Day!

I had a great 2nd Mother's Day. Izzy was in the hospital for my 1st Mother's Day, so it wouldn't have taken much to out-do last year, but we really had a great weekend. Griff went to the Ranger game with some buddies on Friday night, so Izzy and I had a girls night at home. We completed our first 5k as a family of three on Saturday morning in the Buffalo Boogie Race at the Fort Worth Nature Center. Izzy had fun running with her daddy! We spent the rest of the day hanging out at home as a family (rare for us!), and went to a benefit dinner with my parents and aunts and uncles that night. On Sunday, we met Griff's parents and our niece for lunch, and we had dinner with my parents, sis, and her family. And to top it all off, these super cute Banana Republic shoes I've been eyeing showed up on my front porch.


There was even a SpongeBob Mother's Day card to go along with them. Pretty impressive work for a 14-month-old, don't ya think?

Hope all the mamas had a special day yesterday, especially my own mama and my mama-in-law!

You Should've Seen the Other Guy

Well, my sweet little girl has her first official boo boo. She got in a fight with the fireplace screen, and let's just say the screen won. This screen has been an obssession of her's for a few weeks now, so I should have known to take it out of the living room. Motherhood fail! Actually, it's motherhood and fatherhood fail because Griff and I both witnessed the "fight." She crawled over to the screen as usual, and we both told her "no-no" in our discipline voices, which apparently aren't very effective. She proceeded to pull-up on the screen and turn around to look our direction. We again told her "no-no," and she started to sit down to come back toward us. Unfortunately, she kept her hand on the top of the screen, and brought it down with her. She immediately went in to her out-of-control cry where she holds her breath for an eternity. The kind of cry where the longer the pause, the louder the scream. Luckily, she calmed down pretty quickly, but she was left with a shiner and a bruise on her head that is mostly covered by her hair. I felt like the worst parent this morning when I went to get her out of bed and she had a swollen, beat-up eye. It looked a lot worse then than it does in these pictures. And I had to make a trip to Wal-Mart and the post office today, so I'm sure there were a few calls to CPS made on my behalf today. Good thing is she is a tough little girl. Look at that face. You know you're scared.

NICU Reunion

Izzy’s NICU reunion was last weekend. It was so cool to see all of the nurses and doctors who took such excellent care of her. Looking back, it is hard to believe that we were able to walk out of that hospital without her every night for 16 weeks and 2 days. Well, 1) we had no choice, and 2) we were so confident in the ability of the Harris NICU staff, and we knew that our baby was in very capable hands. We are forever grateful for them! There was a great turnout, way more babies and families than I expected, but it was a lot of fun. Everyone was so surprised at how BIG Izzy has gotten. She was passed around quite a bit, and just about everyone who held her said something along the lines of, “What are you guys feeding this kid?!?” ;-) We also enjoyed getting to see all of Izzy’s old roomies and being in the midst of God’s precious little miracles. The reunion started at 10:00, which is Izzy's naptime, so I was expecting a cranky baby, but she did great. She even made it through lunch afterward without a meltdown.

Izzy with Dr. Miao, her original Neonatologist. He's such a great doctor, and he was always very patient with our gazillion questions.

With Nurse Ashley - she loves our Izzy and we love her!

Nurse Kara - so sweet! she took care of Izzy toward the end of her stay

Nurse Linda - she fed Izzy her first bottle, and if I remember correctly, gave Izzy her first "tub" bath. Izzy is checking out her credentials.

RT Debbie - Izzy has forgiven Miss Debbie for stretching out her nostrils with the

bubble cpap. ;-)

Nurse Melissa - she worked the night shift, and I'm pretty sure is partly to blame for my baby not sleeping for the first month she was home. Melissa spoiled her rotten by singing and rocking her. I'm glad somebody was spoiling her when we couldn't be there. ;-) Doesn't Izzy look happy to see her. I think she is in mid-clap.

Nurse Lydia - she was a regular in room 5, where we spent a LOT of time, so we got to know her well. Love Miss Lydia!

Sweet little Emily and her mommy, Crystal, who made E's entire outfit. I didn't get her fancy little jeans in the picture.

Little Miss Hadley and her mommy, Becca. Notice both Emily and Hadley still tolerate their big bows and headbands. My baby, notsomuch! And apparently, she doesn't pose for pictures either. She was way too busy to look at the camera.

The triple threat. Olivia, Elia, and Bianca. Aren't they adorable?!?

The lone boy in the post is Mr. Leighton. He's such a little cutie!

She loved the balloons!

Nurse Karen is tracing Izzy's handprint to hang on the wall. So sad I didn't get a pic of Karen with Izzy. She is such a sweetheart!

She wasn't so sure about bobbin' for duckies

I love having a little girl to dress up!

Go Babies!

Our March for Babies team, Izzy’s Angel, kicked butt this year. We raised over $10,000 for March of Dimes!!! Thank you so much to all of you who helped raise money and to all who donated! You guys rock!! The weather was not on our side the day of the walk, but that didn’t stop us from showing up and supporting the sweet babies who need our help! Despite the weather, we still had a great time, and we even got to see some of Izzy’s old roomies and their families!

We have some serious troopers on our team!

Hadley and Izzy before the walk (I didn't get pics of her other buddies, Emily and Leighton). Izzy doesn't look too happy about the fact that she was pulled out of bed at 6:30 that morning. And of course, she ripped the bow off of her head.

The family after the walk.

Izzy's shirt says "Izzy's Angel Team Captain"

This is one of the walls in the "Garden of Hope," where parents posted pictures/info to remember or celebrate their babies.

Izzy's page

Lily's page

This is Little Miss Emily, Izzy's roomie from back in the day. This is the sweet baby that came thisclose to getting a tracheostomy. Look how gorgeous and healthy she is! God is good!

And this sweet girl is Hadley, also one of Izzy's old partners in crime. Hadley required several surgeries during her NICU stay, but you'd never know it today! Look at those eyes!

Spiderboy and Spidergirl. Lane and KK had so much fun!

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that my husband and baby girl are television stars now! Griff calls me at 5:00 the day before the walk and says, "Brandon Todd and the channel 4 camera guy are following me home. They want to do a story on Izzy." Ummmm....are ya kiddin' me? I was in the middle of cutting tomatoes for our team cookout, Izzy was in the middle of the kitchen floor playing with measuring cups and everything else I had thrown down there to entertain her, her toys were scattered across the living room, and I had zero make-up on and wet hair that had been pulled into a bun. Needless to say, I did not make a tv appearance. I quickly nixed the idea of them coming to our disaster of a house, and instead, we met them in the park for the interview. Griff and Izzy did an awesome job! Check it out. http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/041610-thousands-march-for-babies-on-saturday

Golf for Babies

The Golf for Babies tournament was a success! We decided to organize this golf tournament to raise money for March of Dimes, but we decided on it a bit last minute (I know, so unlike me....no?), so the only date available was the Saturday before Easter. Not ideal, but we moved forward with planning, and I'm so glad we did. The weather could not have been more perfect, we had 15 teams show up to play, and we raised over $3,600 for March of Dimes! Not too shabby for our first attempt at hosting a tournament on Easter weekend. The money was added to our March for Babies team total, which is currently a whopping $8,608!!! Thank you to all who played in the tournament, donated raffle prizes, sponsored holes, and helped out in any way. We had so much fun that we've decided to make it an annual event!

Our team, Izzy's Angel, will be participating in March for Babies this Saturday, April 17th. The walk starts at 9:00am at Farrington Field, and we're having a team cookout afterwards. Come walk with us!!!

First Place Team - The fact that my dad and cousin are on this team makes me a little suspicious...hmmm...;-)

Second Place Team - no family members, this one is legit

The fam with one of our hole sponsor signs

Our little tournament ambassador

She's already starting to look more like a big girl and less like a baby... sigh ;-(

Happy Easter!

Izzy’s second Easter was quite a bit different than her first. She was still in the hospital last Easter, but our friends Niji and Lali visited and took some pictures of her in a sweet little dress that Nanna made. She wasn’t big enough to be allowed to wear clothes at this point, but her nurse made a special exception just long enough for these precious pics to be taken.

This year, we celebrated Easter at my Aunt and Uncle's house with the whole family. Izzy wanted to get down and run around outside with her cousins so bad! She had a great time hunting eggs with mommy's help. She even scored a few money eggs. Not bad for not even being able to walk yet! ;-)

What a difference a year makes! Look at that sneaky little grin. ;-)

Papa and Meme got her a Dora dvd for Easter. Looks like she likes it!

She loves to walk!

Sweet girl!

Look what she found!

She got one of the dollar eggs - that's my girl!