Great News!

A month ago we went in for an ultrasound and we were told that our baby's kidneys were to big. They suggested we come back in a month and have them rechecked. Last week we went in and received even worse news. Not only were her kidneys to big, but her head was to small. The doctor mentioned that this was probably the sign of some type of syndrome. We didn't know if we were looking at Downs Syndrome or something much worse. The news was very hard to take. No matter what happened we knew that we would love this baby unconditionally, but its hard to hear that your baby may have a serious medical disability. Today we went in to visit a specialist and have some more tests run. They performed another ultrasound that was able to show more detail. The doctor said that she thinks our baby looks really good. Her kidneys are a little big, but they appear to be working fine. We'll continue to do ultrasounds to keep an eye on her, but the doctor thinks that she looks healthy. We are so relieved. Thank you so much for all the prayers. We have definately felt your prayers and we really appreciate all the support everyone has shown us.
The next piece of good news is that on Monday we got a new nephew. Mason Blaine Miller was born and we are all so excited. McKinley was really excited to get a new baby cousin. We got to see pictures of him today and he is really cute. Congrats Jenni and Dan on the new addition to your family.
The last piece of good news is that my new OB has given me permission to travel up until week 34. So McKinley and I are taking a trip out to Idaho on October 25th. We are really excited to come out and visit family, and we can't wait to meet our new nephew. Brett is going to be in Honduras for a week, so instead of staying here by ourselves we are going to take a trip to Idaho.
Thanks again for all the prayers and support!

Apple Festival

On Friday night we went to the Apple Festival with some of our friends. It was a lot of fun. We are hoping to take a family trip to Disney World next fall when Brett finishes school. So we have wanted to let me McKinley try some rides before Disney. I was nervouse about whether she would enjoy rides, but she loved them. She almost got kicked off one of the rides because she wouldn't stop rocking the airplane she was in. It was funny that our 2 year old almost got kicked off of a ride. She got upset when the wouldn't let her rock the plane because she didn't think the ride was going fast enough. I'm even more excited to take her to Disney World now because she loves rides.

What a fun evening. Thanks for telling us about it Maren. We will definately try and go again next year. :)

Gymnastics

McKinley had her second week of gymnastics on Friday. She has been taking a tumble class at one of the local gyms. I have been very impressed with the teachers and the facility. McKinley absolutely loves going to gymnastics. She has two of her friends from our neighborhood in her class, which makes it even more fun. Her favorite thing to do is jump on the trampolines.

After class McKinley gets a stamp on her arm. She always gets really excited and spends the next week showing everyone her stamp, even though it was washed off by the next day.

Here she is with one of her friends from her class. We tried to get all 3 of the girls, but we couldn't get them to all stand still long enough.

Last week we went to Midland, MI with Brett. He had a clinical rotation at a hospital and we went with him. They put him up in a hotel that had 3 pools, a miniature golf course, a movie theatre and a bowling alley. So me and McKinley had a lot of fun while Brett was at the hospital all day. Then we got to have dinner with him when he got back at night.

I took McKinley minature golfing for the first time while we were there. She tried hitting the ball into the hole with her club for the first 2 holes, but then she got tired of it. After that she would pick up the ball and put it in the hole and then she would cheer for herself. We also went to the movie theatre once while we were there, and we went to the pool every day. McKinley loves swimming. Overall it was a really fun vacation, at least for me and McKinley.

"CAT"astrophe

Yesterday we went to our friends house for a BBQ. They have 2 girls McKinley's age that she loves to play with. They have a cat that visits their house. Its not their cat, its actually a wild cat, but its friendly and it catches their mice. We've been to their house many times and the girls will always pet the cat. It has always made me nervous to have McKinley touch that cat because I knew it was a wild cat. So I would always watch her really close. Yesterday she was following the cat around and apparently invaded its space, because the cat scratched her across the face. I was really upset at myself after it happened because I've always been uncomfortable with her being around that cat. I'm just really relieved that the cat scratch missed her eye, because she has scratch marks on either side of her eye. Poor little kid looks like she got in a fight. On Sunday night we were at some other friends house for a BBQ and she got hit in the head by a pop bottle. On of the little kids was down on the grass and decided to throw a 2 liter pop bottle up onto the porch. McKinley just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The bottle hit her right in the middle of the forehead. Now she has this red bump in the middle of her head and scratch marks down the side of her face. Poor little kid. She has been really tough about it though. After the cat scratched her we cleaned her scratch and put medicine on it. McKinley ran outside and wanted to play with the cat again. I couldn't believe she wasn't scared of the cat, but she wasn't allowed to play with it anymore. It reminded me that even though some pets/animals are very friendly they are still aniimals, and if you invade their space they will defend themselves. We'll definately be more careful in the future.