Friday's Cardiology Appointment

Bryan, Maddie and I took a quick trip over to Bellevue on Friday for her cardiology check-up. Clinic is now at the brand new, 75,000 sq. ft. Children's Bellevue Clinic, which was so incredibly fancy, clean and state of the art. She's making steady improvements with her appointments and this one had less tears and more self-control on her part. It was good progress for Moom's.

She had the full work-up: EKG, blood pressure, weight/height, sat check, and echo. Dr. Chun was so pleased with the pictures he got from the echo- a clear view of her SVC as well as pulmonary arteries (which is always our concern). They still look like they're staying opened and her sats reflect this at 77%, same as what she came home with post-cath in May. He's very excited about her weight, 13.4 kilos (29 1/2 lbs.) and with the curve she's on regarding her growth chart, she should hit that "magic number" by late spring and be ready for her Fontan surgery. Because she'll have a permanent gortex-tube placed in her heart this surgery, the size is critical. The magic number is 15 kilos or 33 lbs....to put in an 18 mm or 20 mm conduit, which is the goal for the size of conduit in the Extra-Cardiac Fontan Surgery.

The plan is to have a cath in February to determine if she's ready for it as well as a maintenance check before surgery. He said that she'll most likely have the Fontan 1-2 months after the cath, once she's presented to the cardiology team. If things continue to stay the same, we're looking at March or April for her third open-heart surgery at Seattle. She'll just be turning 3.

Upon leaving the appointment, Nurse Barb strapped on another Holter Monitor to our little princess for her pre-Fontan study of her heart's electrophysiology over a 24-hour period. She did really good with it this time and I'll Fed-Ex the leads and monitor back tomorrow. But this was just another reminder that our daughter does indeed have a very serious heart problem... the Holter results will help determine whether pacing wires will be put in during her Fontan surgery. Some kids (many single-ventricles at some point) will need a pacemaker and while the surgeon is already in there, it's a debate whether to just put wires in during the Fontan, just for future's sake. The least amount of times they have to do a sternotomy on patients, the better.

I left with a bittersweet feeling; relieved that she had such a wonderful checkup but the reality of her 3rd surgery really sunk in and my stomach has been in knots. She's closer than further away from her Fontan now and there's no getting out of it. I know I've said that I just want to get it over with but now that it's really creeping up on us, I take it back! It's sad realizing what she'll have to endure with this last operation and my heart breaks just putting her through this. Maddie has done so extremely well with her anatomy that it just doesn't seem right sometimes. We have been so lucky and blessed with her. So we are enjoying each moment...we have lots to look forward to with the holidays coming up and a fun family vacation. We know that God's timing is best and we put our faith and complete trust in Him.

Lots of firsts

I'm a little late on posting our first day of school pictures. Here's Jace on his first day of 1st grade. He has Mrs. Albertson this year and is enjoying it. He's also playing soccer right now and has mom for his coach :) A first for me... We started preschool a week after school began. I'm teaching 12 three, four and five year olds in our basement, two mornings a week. I've worked at preschools before but this is my first year teaching preschool on my own. "Apple Country Preschool" (our name) has had the help of wonderful preschool mom's each time, so that's been awesome. It's really been fun and I think I lucked out with my class :) They're lots of fun and a very bright group. Caden enjoys it but it did take a couple of sessions before he realized that I meant business. Let's just say he "broke in" our STOP chair the first couple of days at preschool. It's rough when your mom's the teacher and you have to share her attention!

This is Cade's 3rd year of preschool so he really is a pro. He was ready for Kindergarten but his birthday fell too late for him to go this fall. I am loving having him in our group, he's a great help and it's rewarding watching him work.

So two mornings a week, this guy and I enjoy a few hours together. Miss Maddie goes to either my mom's house or Bryan's mom's during preschool. She's also had a fun time at Courtney's one morning, playing with Aftyn. It's been great for us all and I've got lots of fun planned this preschool year! I'm loving getting my "teaching fix" again! It's been 7 years since I've had a classroom!

summer fun

Summer feels officially over. The kid's are still asking when we can go swimming and Maddie sneaks into her dresser and grabs her "sweesuits" to have me put on her daily. Too bad fall crept it's way in so quickly, we could still use some summer. These three spent much of their days in suits, playing outside, riding bikes, splashing in pools and just enjoyed breaking in our new home.We only made it to the water park once this summer but the kid's really loved it and we'll need to fit that into our summer time schedule many more days next summer!


Cade & Jace have become pretty good fishermen, thanks to their Uncle Ryan. He's a great sport and asked them to go fishing with him on the ranch a few times this summer. Bryan also took them out on a boat with cousins Nick, Gunnar and Campbelle. Now that was some fishing!
The pond at Uncle Jerry & Aunt Chriss' is one of the highlights of our summer. A great time to visit with friends and let the kid's enjoy rope swinging, paddle boating and just playing in the sand. I had to post this picture of Maddie since she loves to suck her thumb and pick her nose. It's gross and cute at the same time. We're trying to quit the picking part, not quite ready to wean her from her thumb yet...she's going to need it for her Fontan recovery!!!
Cannonball!
Little miss happy...she truly is a cheerful little girl, most of the time. And she's talking so much more! Chatty Maddie :)
Ted and Jean's little pools are another highlight...wading pools that are warm, fun and close by.
We loved having the Maxwell's come visit us one day this summer, we don't get together as much as we'd like. Life is busy for our little families. Here's our three with Trent & Susie's three: Gavin, Bode and Teagan.
These half-heart sisters have a special connection. They are so cute together and seem to know and love one another in a way that most 2 year olds don't have the capacity of doing. Maddie's a lucky girl to have Teagie as one of her best buds and I look forward to watching these two grow up. Their hearts sure aren't slowing them down!
And we did make it to the Grant County Fair (on the hottest day) but I only took 1 picture- Jace holding this cute little bunny. He looks a little possessed, but was pretty excited to be holding a real rabbit! Kylie Rose, Aunt Jessica and Nany came along with us too and luckily the rides weren't open. I hate fair rides. The boys weren't too happy about it...oh well, there's always next year to look forward to!

Good bye summer!

you are so beautiful...

Sunlakes Reunion

Allred Family Reunions = great food, lots of cousins to play with, very fun & competitive games like "Minute to Win It", crafty activities, visiting, laughing and just an overall good time. We had lots of fun catching up with everyone and look forward to the next family reunion in 2012!!!
Bryan with his first cousins- there were only 22 of 37 at the reunion

Here's everyone who attended this year's reunion! Not everyone was able to make it but there are over 100 direct-descendants of Bryan's grandparents and that's not counting their spouses. What a legacy! Papa Allred & his siblings...these 6 have 37 kids between them!

And here's just some of the great-grand kids...lots of little blondies!
At Sunlakes, we really enjoyed the boating...Tyson was a great sport and took everyone out on their awesome boat.
Jace enjoyed tubing...
Maddie enjoyed the fast boat ride...
And Caden was our risk taker and enjoyed Wake boarding with cousin Tyson!