Happy Birthday Great Grandpa

We took the girls on their first mini-road trip today to visit their Great Grandparents in Hilton Head! Tomorrow is their Great Grandpa's birthday and it was so special that we could be there to help him celebrate! The girls did a fantastic job on the car ride and were very well behaved once we got there. We went out for Mexican and had a fantastic time! It was so much fun to see my grandparents and Uncle Ron and Aunt Conni were there too! Such a great day and more great memories! Great Grandma's BIG birthday is next month and while we probably won't be able to celebrate with her on her special day because of Riley's surgery, we'll make sure that the girls do something special to help her celebrate too....we are so happy to be so close to them so that we can see them more often! Can't wait to see them again soon!

PHEW

We spent the morning at MUSC Children's Hospital having Reagan tested to make sure she is a-ok. It was entirely precautionary, but the doctors can't be positive that what Riley has isn't genetic...so Reagan went through all of the same things that Riley did 2 weeks ago and I'm pleased (and so relieved) to report that everything checked out just great! She was so brave and did such a great job and it was Riley's turn this time to be Reagan's cheerleader and she did a great job too. We got so many compliments from people about what well behaved little girls we had...and Matt and I were so proud! (and Matt is also thrilled because we discovered that there is a Chick-Fil-A right INSIDE of the hospital!!!!).
For all of you who have asked...Riley is doing just fine! She's been coughing a lot lately and the doctors said she has some fluid on her lungs (which is normal for kids with AVSD) and so the doctors have put her on some medicine to help take care of that which should also help her start to eat a little bit better (we hope!). She's not losing any weight...but certainly not packing on the pounds. She's happy as can be and has turned into such a roly poly! She moves around so much...I can't let her be for a second or who knows where she'll end up! Reagan is getting so close to sitting on her own. She can do it for about 5 seconds before she topples over. We're going to be practicing a lot in the next few days so I'm sure I'll have some exciting news to report soon!
Have a great weekend everyone!

Reagan and Riley get Baptized

The girls were baptized this morning at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston. We had planned on having them baptized in November and all of our family was going to be able to be a part of it. We changed our plans because Matt and I both felt that it was important to us to have the girls baptized before Riley has her surgery next month. We know that our families missed being there with us for the girl's special day and while we were sad that they weren't there, we had everyone in our hearts with us all day long.
It was an absolutely beautiful service. It was perfect...and so were the girls. Matt and I were so impressed!!!! The girls looked gorgeous and wore their gowns that were given to them before they were born by all of my very, very good friends from Ashley River Creative Arts Elementary School where I taught for years when I lived here before. A huge thank you to Aunt Conni who helped to make sure that they fit perfectly...and they did! Our friends Cindy and Sam Hines took all of us out to lunch after the service at The Harbor Club (and my other great friend Sylvia came with us too...) and it was so good. All in all...a perfect day (and a win for the Brownies too!!!!).
Thank you all for being so understanding and supportive and recognizing that today was very important for us and something that we are so glad that we did now. We are all exhausted but so relieved and thrilled that the girls are baptized!!!

Update

We have an "official" date all set for Riley's surgery. We have been asked to arrive at MUSC Children's Hospital on Wednesday, October 19th. She will be there for about 6 hours for pre-op type stuff and then they will release her to go home with us that night. We will have to be back super early on Thursday, October 20th for the big day. The surgery will begin around 8:30 and will likely take 5 hours. She will then go straight to the ICU. We won't know how long she'll spend there, obviously, until we see how well she does (we're confident she's going to do AMAZING!) and depending on when she's released from ICU will spend 5-7 more days in the hospital, barring anything going wrong.
The only wrenches that can be thrown into the "official" surgery date is if there is an emergency that arises in another child. Riley could then get bumped from her date and it may get rescheduled. It's the kind of thing that they told us could even happen the morning of the surgery. Also, they have put her on the cancellation list so if a child isn't well enough to have their scheduled surgery on their certain day, they'll call us and give us about 24 hours notice before she goes in. Phew...that will be one heck of a phone call if we get it! I can't even imagine.
So....we're going ahead with our lives thinking that October 20th is our big day (but aware that it could change.)
That's the scoop....Thank you all again so, so much for everything. We continue to be absolutely blown away by all of the love and support we are feeling!

BANANAS

The girls have been trying a few new foods here and there after they finish their bottles. So far we've tried carrots, pears and today was our favorite so far...bananas!!!! It was hilarious....Riley's face when we first put them in her mouth was absolutely priceless. It's not captured on film and I SO wish it had been! Riley sort of just sucks the food off of the spoon still but Reagan opens her mouth up SO wide...we just laugh and laugh while they eat. I love every second of it. We put the girls in the Bumbo chairs on top of the kitchen table. It makes it so easy and since we're not quite ready for high chairs yet, it's the next best thing! How cute are these two?!??!!!! It doesn't get any better...they make my heart so happy.

A family picture finally

Since the girls have been born, I think that we have taken maybe 3 pictures of the 4 of us. It always seems that we're so focused on making sure we get pictures of the girls that we forget that we'll actually want them to know someday that they had two parents with them almost all of the time! Ha! This picture was taken right by our house. There are amazing trails all over Daniel Island and I'm wearing them out with all of the walks that the girls and I take. This is the dock right nearby our house....we live in such a beautiful part of the country...it's easy to take it for granted sometimes because it's so close. But we don't and we appreciate how lucky we are! We'll try and be better about taking more pictures of our party of 4!

Our fall weekends in a nutshell

Not that anyone would have had any doubts about this if you really know Matt well....but the girls are being raised to be Buckeye fans and Browns fans! This past Saturday they put on their OH-IO gear and watched the game with Daddy and then on Sunday they put on their Browns outfits and watched (part of) the game with Daddy. Even Daddy couldn't stand to watch the end....it may be a long season!