My baby girl is one!

I am having a hard time realizing that my baby is ONE! Where did time go. It is weird to me because I remember everything about my pregnancy and her delivery so clearly that I am having a hard time believing a whole year has gone by.
I found myself getting a little teary several times today. It all started with her morning bottle, I thought to myself, she is one a she doesn't really need this anymore. I have perfected her special bottles and figured out just how she likes them and I am really sad to not have that with her anymore. I can remember wishing I didn't have to do this bottle thing with her because she was so hard to feed, but now I'm going to miss that! Then I was helping Becky this morning and she said, Right at this time we were all taking turns getting to see her in the NICU, and how that was the first baby she has ever seen be born and then we just started talking about that whole day and it brought back a lot of memories. As I drove home, I looked back in my rear view mirror at her and started to cry because she has no idea what a huge blessing she is to me. I love all of my girls more than anything, I am so proud to be their Mommy. Aftyn has taught me so much in one year. Being in the hospital the morning she was born and feeling so scared and so unsure of what was going to happen was one of the worst feelings anyone can go through. No Mother wants to see their child struggle, and when Aftyn came into this world she did, and I can remember praying so hard that she would be fine. Our little girl has had a harder first year than I would have wanted for her, but I am thankful for our trials and for the lessons I have learned because of them. She is the sweetest baby ever, and I thank my Heavenly Father for her everyday!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Aftyns CT scan

Yes...look at my cute roll!

Aftyn was being so cute and funny today while we were in the waiting room for her CT. This is only a few of the many funny faces we got.

So today was a good day, I finally feel like all my questions have been answered and explained. Aftyn first CT scan was great and she didn't fight it all, well today she was mad, she did not want anything to do with it. She even woke up mad, she wasn't crying much but her face was all crinkled and she kept trying rip off the stuff stuck on her, it was pretty funny. Anyways, after that we met with Dr. Avansino. He told us that he was still pretty sure that it was the Thymus that has made its way into the opening in her chest but that he wanted to do a Flouroscopy to be sure. We did the Flouroscopy and yes they are 99% sure it is the Thymus which is great news for me. He told us that it is not normal for the thymus to be growing, but for some reason it has decided to grow into the opening where the cyst was. Since it is not putting any pressure on the arteries and things that are still running through there she is fine. It is something he does want to watch but he says he doesn't need to see her for another year.

Another bit of good news is that missy weighed 18 pounds...yay!!!!! I was so excited.

We feel so blessed to have had such an amazing Dr. to help us through this. I know it may sound silly but he sees, I have no idea how many patients everyday, each with different situations and when he sat down with us and went to pull up Aftyns charts he said, "This is sad, you wanna know how well I know your child", and he typed in her long record number and birthdate and stuff all by memory. It is so comforting for me to know that someone else has taken this sweet baby and truly cared for her. He has made a Podcast to teach other doctors about Bronchogenic cysts. They are so rare and the surgery that he performed on Aftyn, has not really been done this way before. So for his Podcast we had to send him our ultrasound pictures and sign a waiver since you see her in the pictures, and he took a bunch during surgery and made this video of her surgery. It is really neat and you can see our baby girl during the whole thing. This is the site and you click on Bronchogenic Cyst. http://web.me.com/mthapa/

A no picture update!

*pictures will be coming soon! One thing at a time people!

So I guess it has been too long! This is going to sound almost like a Christmas letter because I have things to update on each member of our family!
As for Miss Avery Mae, she has pretty much quit the almost 6 year thumb sucking habit or battle should I say. The dang thing just could not stay out of her mouth. After trying every trick in the book I went back to the first thing which is bribery and it is working, we have a trip to Chuck E Cheese in the works! She is doing great in school and loves being there. Her new thing is that she wants a horse. She rode one all by herself, Thank you Ashlee, and now believes she is ready to take care of one too! Funny I know!
Adalynn, is still hilarious, she turned 3 on January 17th, and now since she is 3 she reminds us all the time that she is a big girl so she can do whatever she wants! She is so excited to go to pre school with Mrs. Katie, what kind of Mom tells her daughter she gets to go to school 6 months before she actually get to go, every morning I hear do I get to go to Mrs. Katies today or do I get to go to Jaces!
Little miss Aftyn is growing up all too fast! She is so sweet! She is walking around all the furniture and having conversations with us all the time! She loves peek a boo and her sisters! She is saying lots of words but most importantly...Mommy, with a high eee sound at the end...I love it! She has thrown us for yet another loop, we were told that the thing in her chest which they were pretty sure is the Thymus, is growing. We are taking her back over for another CT scan to find out what it is. He told us the possibility of a recurrent Bronchogenic cyst is very rare because she had a complete resection, however he doesn't expect the Thymus to be showing growth like this either. So once again we wait and see. She has also had some weight issues, she is pretty tiny, along with all of Matts family, so I wasn't sure what the big deal was until they told us she hasn't gained weight for almost 6 months. We are trying our hardest to feed her everything in sight along with all of our friends and family to try and put some weight on her.
Matt is never home, he is either working his real job or working on building me a beautiful house, so I can't complain except for we do miss him around here.

Christmas 2009!

The girls painting one of their Santa presents!

I think this smile was on Averys face all day!

Aftyn had fun too!

Adalynn got her pink puter she has wanted all her life! So she says

Our little family, hello Aftyn!

We had a really nice Christmas this year! The girls were so excited they could hardly stand it! They sent letters to Santa and he even sent letters back to them. All Avery could ever dream of having this year was a marble set and a wooden horse that she could paint. Santa must have thought she was good because she got them! Adalynn got lots and lots of lipsticks in all shapes and sizes and a bunch of play dough and play dough tools! Aftyn got some clothes and a few toys. But all Santa really needed to get her was a roll of her own wrapping paper! We hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas!

Thanksgiving & House update

Aftyn and one of her many faces!

Avery and Adalynn cheesing!

I'm really late but... we enjoyed a really nice Thanksgiving at my parents house in California this year. Since they were not going to be with us for Christmas so we called it "Thismas." They got to open all their presents from my family down there. My girls are very proud owners or Mothers as they would say, of yet another American Girl doll complete with a wardrobe.

The picture of our house was taken about 2 weeks ago. The only change now is we added a really pretty front door and plumbing!

Aftyn's Appointment

We had a follow up appointment with Dr. Avansino on Wednesday and everything went pretty well! My good friend Emily came with me, Thank you so much, you re the best! After her surgery we went in for her post op appointment and he noticed something different in her chest x-ray so he wanted to have some other people look at at and then he would let us know if it was anything to worry about. Well it turns out that where her cyst was, left a big opening in her chest and her Thymus sort of floated in there and stayed there. It is nothing to be worried about for now because it doesn't seem to bother her. It will just be something we have to follow up on. However her weight gain is not real impressive, she weighs 16 lbs now, and has only gained about a pound in the last 4 months. She is a horrible eater, I can get her to eat an 8 oz. bottle, it is a frustrating process and is very messy but we get it don't only to have her throw most of it back up. She has pretty much always been a spitter but it has just gotten worse and now it is showing. She has had some drops on her weight curve, but she has finally made it on the charts! Anyways, he said in complete doctor talk a few "conditons' that stem form a bronchogenic cyst that may be causing this so he would like us to come back next week for an upper GI and we will go from there. Other than that our little miss is doing great, she is so sweet! I wish she would stop worrying her Mama though, I don't handle this very well!

Aftyn is crawling!

My sim card card broke, I have no pictures but the princess is crawling! It is too cute, I'm so proud of her! I would have never thought she would have been my earliest crawler! She is getting so big too fast!

House pictures!

My view from the living room

Front

Back

Back

These are the most recent pictures I have, they are 4 days old, and already outdated! The roof is about done now, the shingles go on tomorrow, but you get the idea! We are so excited, it has been fun walking through all the rooms and the girls think it is so neat to go in their rooms. Avery has already said she wants a Hannah Montana room....we will see about that. She has never even seen a Hannah Montana show, I don't know why she likes her so much!

Halloween 2009!

Blake and Avery passing out candy

The cutest kitty ever, waiting for some candy

She was sooo sleepy

Aftyn

Avery

Adalynn

I love Halloween! It is so fun to watch the kids get excited about their costumes and how excited they get to trick or treat! This year Avery was a Cowgirl, Adalynn was a kitty and Aftyn was Bambi and then we switched it to a ladybug because it was sooo cold! They were so cute. We stared out by going to the church for the Trunk or Treat. Adalynn fell asleep in the car on the way out there. She needed a little "cat nap".... Haha I'm so funny! Avery and Blake took off so there are very few pictures of Avery. Her and Blake made their way around the cars and then passed out candy from Emily's car. After that we went up to Grandmas house and I only took them to a couple house up there because it was freezing outside and Adalynn hated it and Avery wanted to pass out candy from Grandmas house.

Disney on Ice

Me and the girls!

Avery with her friend Kate!

I took the two big girls to Disney on Ice yesterday. We went with my friend Shelli and her son and we had so much fun! We had front row seat, which was crazy because I bought my ticket after Shelli and we ended up getting seats right next to each other! We were right on the ice and it really was an amazing show, I highly recommend it. Our friends the Allreds were there so Avery went and sat with her friends Kate and Gracee for part of it and then came down because all the princesses and fairies were waving to Adalynn. I took a ton of pictures and they were almost all blurry, Oh well!

look who is sitting up!

Aftyn~ 7 months

She has been sitting for a while now, since her surgery she has become a whole new kid! She started holding her head up right after and sitting all about the same time. She also is saying Mama and Dada. She loves her tongue, she loves to click it and spit with it and just stick it out! She is such a happy baby, she almost always has a smile on her face. We just love her to pieces. Dr. Avansino, the Dr. who did her surgery, called and said there was something wrong with her Thymus so we are going back to Childrens in the beginning of December.

Avery lost her first tooth!

She actually lost it on October 8th, she just has a Mom who forgets to get on here and update important things like this! It was really loose so she had Matt pull it out and she said it didn't hurt at all!

Averys Soccer games

The one in the middle with pink socks, of course!

Avery had so much fun playing soccer. They started right after school started and it lasted a couple weeks. Although she really had no idea what she was doing, she had fun running after the ball. Every time she would kick it she would look back at us a smile.

Im all caught up...

The next several posts will catch me up, sorry its sooooo long!

Jackson Matthew Noftle aka The neatest kid ever!

This is my amazing, strong, brave, handsome, honest, obedient, kind, generous, funny and sweet nephew! He started chemotherapy today for the second time in his short life. He has Neuro Degenerative Central Nervous System Langerhans Cell Hystiocytosis. It is basically like brain cancer. Matt and I love this kid so much and hurt so bad for him. We wish that we could take some of his pain and carry it for him. I know he is scared and it breaks my heart. I know that he will get through this, he has before, but that doesn't make the next 12-18 months of his life any easier! Please pray for him and his family! We love you so much Jax!