Appointment at Childrens Hospital - Speech

This morning we had an appointment for a follow up in the speech clinic at Childrens Hospital. Cassie did AMAZING!! What a change from 6 months ago! 6 months ago she was freaked out by all doctors, cried and clinged to me pretty much the whole appointment with the speech therapist and cried when the tubes in her ears were checked. Today...a whole different story.

She stood next to the speech therapist and repeated every word she asked Cassie to say. She let the therapist put this mirror/spoon like instrument under her nose as she repeated words. This instrument let her know if any air was escaping out of Cassies nose while talking that we couldn't hear.

6 months ago they said she had some mild hypernasality, they heard glottal stops and nasal fricatives. And the results from today...

Nothing. We heard no air escaping out of her nose for any of the problem words related to having a cleft palate. The instrument also confirmed that there was no air escaping out of her nose. At one point the therapist asked Cassie to say "Fish", in response Cassie said "Nemo". I think I mentioned before that Cassie LOVES the movie "Finding Nemo". Haha!! The speech therapist said she heard no problems with Cassies speech related to her palate. This means that she is closing off her nose from her mouth by raising her palate. Woot Woot!! We also had the tubes in her ears checked - they were open and clear and she passed the hearing test with flying colors!

On the potty training front we are doing pretty well. I had stopped for a couple of weeks because she seemed to be regressing. Yesterday I started again. I just put her in big girl undies and she has been telling me when she has to go. Today she ran to her potty and yelled "hurry! hurry!" She was crossing her legs waiting for me. We have not had any real accidents the past 2 days. She has had some "leaking" because once she realizes she is going she will hold it and run to the potty. She is doing really well!

This is what......

boredom looks like


Cassie is all girl. She loves dress-up. Friday we tried on all of her dresses. Her favorite is Cinderella or "Rella Rella" as she calls it. She will walk around with her dress on and if she catches a glimps of herself...lets say her reflection in the stove...she will stop, pose and say "pretty". If you were to ask her what her name is she would tell you "Nannie" For some reason she won't say "Cassie". When she wears her dress she calls herself "Nannie -rella". Makes me laugh everytime.

Here are more pictures of "Nannie-rella"




1st Braid


Another dress she wore on Friday (ignore the string cheese all over her face)


Saturday we spent all morning at our friends Stacey and Eugene. Adelyn and Cassie played all morning and we had lunch together. It was a great time. I love watching her play and watching what a big girl she is becoming. Lets just say she has come a long way from the little girl who would cry if anyone looked at her and would cling to me and not want to be away from me. Now she runs off and does her own thing. Gives hugs and says "hi" to complete strangers. I'm so proud of how far she has come!!

We have a cradle/highchair toy which we moved into the kitchen. Cassie took off the cradle and pretends the bottom half is a bath. So while I cooked dinner she bathed herself. Whatever works to keep her busy!



Sunday we went to church and dropped off our Operation Christmas Child shoe box. Cassie carried it over and put it on the pile of other shoeboxes. Matt took her out of the service when she became restless. When he was in the foyer they brought all the children out to pray around the shoeboxes so Cassie and Daddy joined them. A photographer who was there took their picture and sent it to us. He is also going to post it on his Facebook page. He said it was a joy watching Matt with her. Its so awsome to see Cassie loving to pray.

Hello Friday

This morning we went to the YMCA for our usual Friday morning swim. My Dad and Mom came along as did our friends Stacey/Adelyn and our new friends Traci/Jackson/Morgan. They just moved from Seattle. She is so nice and her kids are so sweet. We stayed in the pool for an hour and then moved into the playroom. We were at the Y from 9:30 until noon. We gave hugs good-bye,went home and had grilled cheese for lunch and then a nap....which I think she is waking up from so I have to type fast!!!

I have been making Cassie smoothies almost every day. She is not a big eater and the only fruit she likes is Mandarin oranges. So I blend up yogurt with strawberries, bananas and blueberries and she is none the wiser! Ha! Umm...she is screaming "mama" from her crib. Type FASTER!!

On the IVF front we are still planning on trying for #2. Its alot harder now that we just have one income....wish insurance would cover it but "it is what it is". It would be so great if it worked the first time. If it doesn't hopefully we will have frozen embryos. If we don't have that I don't know that we can afford to do two fresh cycles. We will just take it day by day and see where God leads us. I know everything is in his hands.

I gotta run!! I am being summoned by a crazy screaming little girl from the other room!

Bonfires and Dress-up

The past couple of weekends we have made bonfires on our patio....it is one of those "dreams come true" to be sitting on the patio with my family. When she is older I want her to look back and remember all the fun things we did as a family and our traditions....traditions are a huge thing for me. She already seems to love having bonfires!

Cassie helping Daddy bring wood to the fire

And back up the hill for more wood

Watching Daddy break up the big sticks

Keeping my baby warm

She looks a little scared here! She points and says "hot" and "smoke"

Helping with the raking


Cassie is talking up a storm. She will repeat everything and anything that is said. It is so fun. Her memory is also amazing! I can't beleive some of the things she remembers. She is a huge fan of "Finding Nemo". She is always talking about the big shark in the movie. She will point to her teeth and say "BIG" and then say "Go, go go shark!" She also loves Dori....but who doesn't like Dori? :o)

I used to feed Cassie dinner around 5:30 and then after she was in bed Matt and I would eat dinner. Last week I decided to do dinner time together as a family. I think its nice to sit down at the end of the day and eat together. I remember that as a child and I want her to remember that as well. Matt is now trying to be home shortly after 6 so we try to eat around 6:15 or so. Before dinner we pray. Just after a couple times of praying she will now sit in her chair, fold her hands and bow her head then say "Amen".



Last week we played dress up. She tried on a bunch of dresses that were way to big for her. She does have this cinderlla dress that fits ok.

She walked around the house in it all evening

and stared at herself in the mirror -ha!

Cassies very first picture.....

.....as an embryo!!

I started this blog after we did IVF and had Cassie. I love reading others blogs who did IVF and seeing their photos so I thought I would post mine.

Here are our embryos. The 3 with the black dots next to them are the ones we tranferred. The other 3 didn't make it. I believe Cassie is the embryo in the middle because those cells were really dividing faster than the other 2.


This was at our 5 week ultrasound. I remember the nurse preparing me to see nothing there because of my HCG levels...they were pretty low. This ultrasound proved the nurse wrong!!


6 weeks - And we have a heart beat!!


8 weeks - All was well and we graduated to our normal OB!


18 weeks


26 weeks (I had fallen down stairs so got another u/s to make sure all was ok)


28 weeks


And now!! I love this girl and thank God for her everyday!


How can you not believe in God when you see pictures of how life develops?! From a ball of cells to this! What makes the heart and other organs develop? What makes the blood start to pump thru the little bodies? Answer = God!!! Simply amazing!!

Last weekend we painted Cassie's room. We wanted her to have a pretty girl room. Purple was the lucky color. She loves it. When she goes in she says "pretty room"


Maxim and Adelyn came over yesterday for a quick playdate. Maxim and Cassie showed Adelyn how to jump in the bed. Haha!!

Playdate fun

This morning we had a playdate at 10:00 with a bunch of friends. This is Chase and Cassie. We played at his house today.

I love watching the children interact together. They really play well together.

Its so nice to get out of the house for both Cassie and I. She enjoys being with the other kids and playing with the different toys.

This is Cassie and Jackson. He will be 3 this month. Jackson has a sister, her and Cassie are the only girls in the playgroup.

They had a bounce house they blew up and put in an empty room. The kids loved it.

Maxim and Morgan in the bounce house

Everyone else was snacking at this point but Cass

Kyler and Cassie

Cass has the same toy at home but its more interesting here

The bounce house = FUN

Bouncing in the house

We stayed for about 2 hours and came home for lasagna and went down for a nap.
Before I put her down I looked out the window and saw this....

He was so cute. I love that we get so much wildlife in our backyard.

Someone loves showers. I let her take one in the mornings once in awhile. She started getting into the whole shower thing because after we swim in the pool at the YMCA I turn the shower on nice and warm and she will stand in the spray while I get dressed. She loves it. Now in the mornings if we are rushed I will let her take a shower, while she does that I do my makeup in the bathroom - works out very well because I know exactly where she is and that she isn't getting into mischief!!

Today we went back to see her Pedi. When we went earlier this week he was called to the hospital to see a baby that was being delivered so we didn't get to meet with him. He was very happy with Cassie and she did just awesome with him. I think back to the days when she screamed and cried the entire appointment and there was nothing today...not a tear. Not even for her shot!! She gave the doctor high-fives, showed him all the body parts he asked for, danced, hopped and even stood on one leg...which he was surprised by. She even let him hold her!! I was so proud of how well she did. She got the flu vaccine and her DTP booster. I felt her tense up a little bit but no crying or tears. Wow!! The nurse even gave her stuffed puppy a shot and put a band-aid on it...Cass loved that.

This morning we colored pictures with marker.
Do markers and a 2 year old mix? Hmmm...at least they are washable markers.


Thank you for inventing washable markers Crayola!!