Happy Halloween!!

Jon, Hayden, Erica & I spent the evening at Nana and Papa Sharpe's home in Edina. Marilyn made us a beautiful, healthy dinner before we went out and filled our bellies with candy and junk food!! We then got the kids all dressed up in their costumes, and headed out to trick or treat around their neighborhood.

Above are the pumpkins we carved this year...I carved the wolf on the left, and Jonathan carved the bat on the right. I want you to know, though, that I carved mine the old fashioned way--with a little carving knife and lots of sweat. Jon used an air saw hooked up to his air compressor in the garage --I was sure to tell him that this is CHEATING! He disagrees, of course, and feeds me the line about "anything that can be done, can be done better with a motor." Yep, that's my husband for ya! :)

Here is Hayden, the little monkey--or Curious George. Either way, it fits his personality, and I have been calling him a "stinky monkey" for some time now as a nickname, so it really seemed appropriate this year!!

Next we have E.Rae, who has always been our little pumpkin--amongst many other weird nicknames (like stinky monkey), so she wore the pumpkin costume this year. Why, you ask? Well, because Hayden wore it at two, so why not get another wear out of it? May as well get your money's worth, right!? I did have to rip the seams out of the crotch and sew in Velcro this year, though, to fit over her cast. All in the name of love, I tell ya!

And finally, a photo of the two of them--sharing a Halloween hug
(although it looks a little one sided)!

Pine Tree Apple Orchard

We started the tradition a few years back of going to the Apple Orchard in the fall with some of our friends and their kiddo's. This was our second year at the Pine Tree Apple Orchard in White Bear Lake, and it really is a beautiful place.

Here are all of the kids from L to R: Hayden, Paige, Erica (above), Natalie, Josie, and Breanna. Yes, Hayden is still the only boy of the group--but he doesn't seem to mind a bit!!

Here we all are getting ready to go on our hayride. I wonder why they still insist on calling it a "hayride" even without the hay??

The requisite photo of Hayden "driving" the tractor!
A quick snuggle for Hayden and Jonathan beside the lake.
......and finally Erica munching on popcorn and looking so stylish in her new, pink hat.

A Zoorific Day!

I heard a statistic the other day, which was something like 17 out of the first 19 days of October have been either overcast or raining. Nice. This is why when the sun came out on Saturday morning, we (Hayden) decided it was a zoo day, for sure.

We started out on the Northern Trail outside, and it was so beautiful. The trees were at their peak color change, and ranged from yellow to bright red. It was so warm outside, we were wishing we hadn't worn sweaters, although we tried not to complain too much after all the cold and rain as of late.

Here are some cute, little Prairie Dogs from the Northern trail. We always love to sit and watch these guys.

Next we headed inside to do the Minnesota Trail and the Tropics Trail. The highlight of our entire day was a beaver sighting. In all the years that we have been members at the MN zoo, we have yet to actually see a beaver out of their den. Yesterday, to our surprise, this big guy (or gal) was just posing for a photo op, right out of our reach. I had to take a picture, as I figured it would probably be another 4 years before we saw another!! :)

Here are Hayden, Jon, and Erica looking under the beaver dam--but there was no action here, as usual!

This gorgeous flower was from inside the Tropics Trail, and matched Erica's outfit so well. I would've picked it, but thought that may be frowned upon.....so instead I just took a picture.

Below we are checking out the smelly warthogs--aka "Pumba!"

And finally--after a long, fun-filled day at the zoo, Hayden and Erica enjoyed some ZZzzz's, and mom and dad enjoyed some silence!!

"I scream, You scream..........

......We all scream for Ice Cream!!!!"

I took Hayden grocery shopping with me tonight at the new Super Target down the road, because we just had to check it out. It was crazy-- way too crowded, and I am not sure if we will go back, but we did manage to get our groceries and a new pair of shoes for him.

Hayden got to pick out the ice cream flavor, and he chose Mint Chocolate Chip--aka "the green stuff." So, after dinner tonight we all had ice cream cones for dessert. Here is Hayden thoroughly enjoying his ice cream pick!!!

Erica's New "Owie" and "Hot"

So, I took Erica to the mall with me today to run some errands and to get her ears pierced (note the cute, little, white gold studs in her ears). We had been talking about doing it for at least a year now, but never actually had gone through with it...until today. She did really well, and only shed a tear or two. She got a sucker for being such a good girl, and forgot all about the pain. The funny part is now she points to her earrings and says "owie," and then she points to my earrings and says "mommy owie." Forget about the incisions on her hip, or the cast she is in--it's her ears that have owie's.

Before leaving the mall we had to, of course, have an Auntie Annie's pretzel, and run through Children's Place. Erica saw the hat she is pictured in all the way across the store....."hot, hot, hot....hot, mommy." I made the mistake of letting her try it on, and couldn't get it off of her. Plus she looked so darn cute it in, I just gave in and bought it for her (normally I am a harder sell than that-- but cripes, it was only $6). She hasn't taken it off since................

Here are some of the photos I had to shoot just to get ONE
where she was smiling.......Stinker!

Above is what I refer to as the "furrowed brow" look--
(I have a feeling I will be seeing this one for many years to come)

The "What up, Homey G" look--

....and finally, the Mick Jagger (or just plain crazy)! :)

Centennial Lakes

Our first official family outing after Erica's surgery was a walk around Centennial Lakes in Edina. It was day 5 post op for Erica, and I think we were all having a bit of cabin fever. It was such a beautiful, sunny fall day--so we figured we ought to seize the opportunity to be outside. Hayden had a blast running ahead, as he is always wanting to race us right now--he, of course, always still needs to win, or he is heartbroken. Erica was quite comfortable in her stroller, just watching the world go by. We are so thankful that she fits into her stroller, or we would really be home bound for the next 5 weeks.

"Superman!"

Erica's 4th Surgery

The dreaded October 8th finally arrived--after having all summer to enjoy Erica's new found mobility. It was a sad day, and a yet sort of a relief for the day to finally come, so that we could just get on with the healing process.

We arrived at Gillette at 7:00 am for Erica's left hip surgery. She hadn't had anything to eat or drink since dinner the night before, but she was amazingly calm and had a very sweet disposition.

Here we are in the Pre op Department getting ready for her to go off to surgery. I went with her into the operating room while they put her to sleep, which I thought would be very traumatic for me to see. It was, however, quite peaceful. Erica was very calm, and very trusting of the anesthesia team in the room. She fell asleep very easily and without a fight. The hard part was leaving her.

The surgery took 3 hours, with casting taking up about 45 minutes of that time. Her Dr. came out and let us know that the surgery went really well, and that he was very pleased with the results. He was able to improve her left hip dramatically, and he believed this would be the final step toward fixing her extremely dysplastic hip.

We finally got to see her after she came out of recovery, which is always a huge sigh of relief. That is usually the most emotional time for me--once I see her breathing and awake, the tears usually start to flow.

Her Spica cast is a lot more significant that her last three, which I guess makes sense being that she is a lot bigger since her last 3 surgeries. Again, it was a little shocking for us to see our little girl restrained in plaster from tummy to toes. She also had an IV in her forearm, a Foley catheter draining her urine, electrodes on her chest monitoring pulse and respirations, a blood pressure cuff on her bicep, and an oximeter on her toe measuring the amount of oxygen in her blood. It was rather maddening to feel like you couldn't really even pick her up without the help of the nurses.

Here she is all cozied into her Spica chair that Jonathan built for her, and being showered with kisses from her relieved family. These photos were taken just hours post operatively, and we found this chair to be the place she was most comfortable. We could change her position without jostling her much, which resulted in much less pain for her.

Despite how beneficial the chair was to us, she still wanted to be held and cuddled--below we are enjoying some mother & daughter time. It also gives you a good look at the size of her cast. It weighs 8 1/2 pounds, and it is very difficult to find a comfortable way of holding her in it.

This photo is from the day after surgery, and you can see she is feeling well enough to feed herself some fruit. It was really nice to see her wanting to eat and drink again. They had also taken out her catheter this morning, and she had pulled her IV out the night before, so she is sans many tubes in the photo.

And here we are getting ready to go home!! On day 3 post op, the Dr's and nurses decided that Erica was doing well enough to be discharged. She was eating and drinking, voiding, and taking all of her pain meds well by mouth, so we felt very confident that we could take care of her just as well at home. All of the staff at Gillette was unbelievable and made our experience so great, however, it is never the same as being at home. So, Wednesday was a good day for us!! I changed Erica into a cute, little green dress--in celebration of our discharge, and she pretty much slept until we got home.

For more details (journal entries, photos, links, and guest book) about Erica's surgery, please visit her Caring Bridge page at: www.caringbridge.org/visit/ericasharpe

Fall Harvest Orchard & Farm

Here we are at the Fall Harvest Orchard in Delano, MN. This was the day before Erica's surgery, so we sort of dedicated the whole weekend to family fun time--just to enjoy one another, and have fun together before our life changed so much.

Here are Erica and Hayden with one of the baby goats. So darn cute, and still had it's little dried up umbilical cord attached to it's belly.

They also had baby chicks to hold, which were so soft and downy.

We really had a fun time petting all the animals, playing in the corn, picking out pumpkins, sitting on the tractors, and a even a bumpy wagon ride on the way out to the van. We didn't pick our own apples due to impending nap time, but did buy a bag of Harlson's--which are Jon and my favorite apples.

Finished Spica Chair

Here is the finished Spica Chair that Jonathan designed and fabricated in his garage. There have been many models of this same idea over the past 15 months, but this is the most recent prototype. Talk about cutting it close--Jon just received the body of the chair back from powder coating (blue paint job), and got it all reassembled the weekend before Erica's surgery. Whew--thank goodness for Speedy Courier service! This is the chair that will save our lives for the 6 weeks Erica is back in a Spica cast, and will hopefully benefit many other children and their families in the very near future, as well. Nice job, Jonathan!!