Thanksgiving Thankfullness

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. There truly is a lot to be thankful for. I am very thankful for my three wonderful daughters. There are truly the joys of my life and make each day exciting and new. I am thankful for my wonderful husband who is always there for me and helps around the house so much, together we are a GREAT team. Thankful for our families for their love, support, and fun times. I am also very thankful for our wonderful friends who are always willing to help out and be our "lower peninsula" family.
We had the privilege of having Mike's whole entire family stay with us for the Thanksgiving holiday. We had a great time and our house didn't seem as small as I thought it would. Megan had a blast playing with her cousins, especially her bud Piper. We also got to meet Avalon, the newset addition to the Voakes Family. She is a very sweet baby, although I was glad that the baby days are done here when I heard her cry in the middle of the night. We also got to hear some of the wedding plans from Saundra and Vince. The wedding should be beautiful and a lot of fun. They are getting married on April 18th (the twins 2ns birthday). We packed in a lot
of stuff in the few days everyone was here. Friday morning we went to "America's Thanksgiving Parade" in downtown Detroit. It was a good parade but got a little chilly towards the end. We came home and had some snacks as we got the feast going. On Friday, myself, Beth, Sharon, and Steven went shopping in the wee hours of the morning. We made it back before anyone had rolled out of bed. The morning and early afternoon everyone just relaxed and then most of them took off again for Detroit to watch the Red Wing game, do a little gambling, and have the best pizza in the world at Pizza Popolis (can you belive they didn;t bring any leftovers home). While they were at the game, Beth, myself, and Sharon took the girls to have their pictures taken, it was a little interesting - 6 kids ages 5 and under! It went relatively well though. Saturday was relaxing and packing up.
Thank you everyone for coming to visit. We had a great time and spent the rest of the weekend relaxing!
The Parade










Thanksgiving Dinner





Ice Cream Treats from Auntie Saundra and Vince



Opening Presents







Happy Kids When Chex Mix Fell on the Floor (Who Needs Dogs????)



Pooped Out Meredith

Family Pictures

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures...

Today we went and had the girls Christmas pictures taken and also our annual family picture. They turned out really nice. Mike was having a fit beacuse they were running about 20 minutes and was worried how the girls would hold up. They girls did great and Mike's blood pressure went down eventually. Here are some of the pictures. Some of the pictures are sideways, sorry the cd wouldn't let me change directions.


















In other happenings, Mike and Bob were busy getting the house ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. They got the outside lights up on Saturday and Bob put the garland up on our banister today. Little by little it's beginning to look like Christmas!

It's That time of Year Again...

Time to Elf Yourself!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

One year ago today.....

November 19, 2007, Annalyse had her surgery. We can't believe it has been a year already. What a day that was, sitting around for nearly 8 hours waiting for it to be over. On me it wasn't as nerve racking as it was on Alison and her mom. It was funny watching Jan continually crochet scarfs for x-mas presents. She may have done two or three of them that day. It was a relief when they said the surgery went well and we could see her in a little bit. Well that little bit seemed like forever. Seeing her lay there all tied down and blood trip tubes there was worse than waiting. At least for me, since I don't like blood all the much. Overall it was an experience where patience was certainly tested, in terms of sleepless nights, sleeping with her in a chair to keep her head up, doctor and helmet appointments, etc. At least this was done when she was young and she won't remember any of this, only pictures. Below are some pictures before surgery, few days after surgery and now.

In case some of you were wondering what she had it was craniosynostosis http://www.ccakids.com/Syndrome/Craniosynostosis.pdf. She had the plagiocephaly form.


Before surgery you can see the right eye and side of head of Annalyse (left) deformed a little.


Right before the surgery


After surgery, I still get oozy thinking about it.


Another after surgery pic.


Picture of the incision, from one ear to the other. They actually pull the skin down past her nose so they can remove most of the skull and rebuild it (100 plus screws and 20 plus plates. The skull was cut up into 23 different pieces)


Alison holding her two days after. As you can see her eyes swelled shut.


Me holding her on Thanksgiving. Eye swelling went down and is in good spirits.


Grandma Jan holding Annalyse on day five, of which was her discharge day. Amazing on day five she looks so much better.


Day 6, happy as can be, like nothing had happened. Remarkable.


Now everything looks great.

Update on Annalyse and more...

Howdy all, Annalyse did good during the CT Scan and her appointment with the surgeon went good, but she still has two holes in her head. The bones haven't filled in yet, which can take up to two years. I am not sure at that point what they will do if they don't fill in, but I guess we'll worry about that when the time comes. Overall, it looks pretty good as her head is the same length from back of the head to each eye socket.

On Saturday, we took Megan to see Madagascar 2, very good and funny. We dropped the girls over at Alison's friends Mom (Jan, who watches the girls every other Friday), while we went to the movie. After that we all went to lunch. In the evening, we decided to make a gingerbread house, which was leftover from last year. It turned out pretty good and Megan enjoyed eating the candy. Actually she did a good job sticking the candy on the house.

Sunday, was more laid back, we got Alison's M & M tree up, with lights and garland. Tomorrow night we'll decorate the tree.

The snow is coming here. Megan was pretty excited to see the snow. Alison has her and Megan's fingers crossed for a snow day which will be highly unlikely!

Going Solo

As the title says, I went solo this weekend as Alison did her annual pilgrimage to Howell, MI for a Scapbooking Marathon. She left Friday after work and came home Sunday afternoon. I know most of you must be thinking right now, my god how can she do that to Mike, but don't worry I had things under control, no emergency room visits. To be honest I enjoy doing it every once in awhile, but don't tell Alison I said that. The weekend went good, we played play-doh, worked on teaching the twins their colors, raked leaves (kids played), played in the basement and so much more. Alison's weekend went good, she got a lot done.

Annalyse goes for another 3-D CAT scan tomorrow to make sure her skull is forming/growing correctly. I don't look forward to doing this, as they have to sedate first, then do the Scan then wait for the sedation to wear off. All of this on an empty stomach as she can't eat 6 hours before the scan. It is in the morning so hopefully she'll be OK. On Thursday we will meet with the surgeon to go over the scan. Other than that, nothing else going on this week.