Happy 30th Birthday Kristin!!

Thank you so much to Kim, Sam, Lauren and Leann for planning such a wonderful surprise birthday party for Katie. Darren and I had SO much fun and we are happy we were able to share that night with Katie. Here are a few pictures, it was a blast...

In the shuttle/limo thingy...

Champagne toast in honor of Kristin

Rudy and Lou

Kimber and I

Sean..playing DJ
Darren and Chris
Silly faces in the shuttle

Rudy and a few of his daughters

Jason and Trista

Me and Darren

Kim and Best Friend (Heather)

Trista and BF

Kimber, Kate, Sam and Leann

Samuel Sprouse

Dancing at Cowgirls...

Posing with friends on the dance floor

Jason, Trist, Darren and I

Trist and I

Sam and Darren

Trista and I leaving Rudys house...in the shuttle!

Sisters...

Our bad news...

We went in for Brooklynds follow up this morning and unfortunately the finger tip didn't survive. It was a hard morning. They took his cast off which he didn't like and cried all the way through the process, then after it was finally off, Darren and I could see very easily that the finger tip had died- needless to say we were thrown for a loop and very upset. Brooklynd handled it all very well though. The doctor decided that he would wrap it and send us home with the hopes that his bath will help it to naturally heal. Nothing has happened as anticipated, hoped or expected in this process so I figure we start expecting the worst and hope for the best.

He's wearing underwear!

In all of the stuff going on over the past few weeks I haven't mentioned that Braeden is "officially" (cross your fingers) potty trained. He has been working on it for several weeks and doing awesome, but last Wednesday (11/5/2007) he got to put on his first pair of Elmo underwear and boy is he proud of them! He has done so well and we are very proud of him, here are a few pics in front of his potty sticker chart!! Good job Braeden!

Lynsey and Dave's Wedding!

This past Saturday Darren & I and my mom went to our friends Lynsey and Dave's wedding. We had a great time, the reception was at the Forestry Center near the Zoo, it was a beautiful affair here are a few pictures.

Brooklynds Finger!

On Monday October 29th we had an unexpected emergency while the kids were at daycare. Brooklynd cut his left ring finger tip off of his finger with a pair of scissors - we do not know exactly how it happened, his care provider was out of the room, without getting into too much detail here is the jist of it! He was taken to the OHSU Emergency Room Monday just after noon where they x-rayed him. The orthopedic surgeon decided they would go into surgery with an open mind to reattach and see what they could do once they looked at the finger tip and the finger. They called us 2 hours into the surgery to let us know that they were going to attempt reattachment, he was in surgery for a total of 4.5 hours and was put in ICU once he came out of the anesthesia. The surgery was successful so for the next 5 days it was just a waiting game to see if the fingertip survived (the first five days are the most critical!). It did and we left the hospital 5 days later on Saturday afternoon. He was on blood thinners the entire 5 days until Saturday morning and therefore he ended up needing 2 blood transfusion, it all went smoothly but scared us to death! It was an uphill battle but Brooklynd's a fighter. He left with a full mitten cast and will return in 2 weeks to have it removed, hopefully the finger tip has lived and he will be on the fast track to rehabilitation and recovery. Thank you for all of your support in our difficult time! We are grateful to have such awesome friends and family! Here are a few pics of the little munchkin!

Doernbecher Pediatric ICU

Getting cheerios in intermediate care
His surgeon
Kissing his puppy (the nurses in ICU gave him!)

Sleeping...sweet boy

Loving his balloon

Happy Halloween (in ICU)

Brushing his teeth like a big boy!