GA Aquarium

We had debated between going to the zoo or the aquarium for our second outing while in Atlanta...so since it was freezing out, we opted for the aquarium!  Brent and I had taken Avery and Griffin when they were 18 months and 3 years...so it had been a while. They were in awe of it all. Avery's favorites were the Dolphin show and petting the stingray and sharks.  Griffin's favorites were petting the stingrays and the frog exhibit. Graham loved it all - several times he asked me " is it real?" and "can I touch it?" 

 Since ATL had school off too, the aquarium was packed. It was pretty hard to keep everyone contained and together with so many people. And we even lost Griffin once. A "man selling treats" found him and kept him until I stumbled upon them. Scary!!

 One of my life-long besties met us there with her to kids...so we added Bryson and Bella to our crowd!

 theses 2 pics are of Graham staring into the big aquarium window...he was definitely in awe. 

 petting the sting rays and sharks

Cousins

1

 While in ATL last weekend, we  spent sunday afternoon at Peyton and Ann's house. Preston and Leeann and their kids joined us there too. The kids played well together all afternoon. They even got to watch Star Wars on their in-home theatre system. Peyton cooked some beer butt chickens on the egg and we had a wonderful dinner. It is always great to spend time with the fam!

Saeran, Graham, Griffin, and Addison enjoying brownies and ice-cream!

Caris and Carsyn

enjoying some Yogli Mogli Monday night thanks to Big Daddy!

after his brownie

Ayla and Carsyn

Lego Land

The kids had Monday and Tuesday off from school so Brent took the days off too so we could have some family fun. Normally when we go to Atlanta, we spend time with my family...so we decided to do some of the ATL attractions this time. We spend Sunday at Lego Land. 

 This girl enjoyed her trip!!

 The kids really enjoyed it. There were 2 rides, lots of building stations, places to race cars you built, a 4D cinema, and a huge climbing/sliding area. Brent and I liked the movie the best and the kids probably would pick the climbing/sliding area. 

 They had an entire downtown built out of legos...including the Dome, Turner Field, and Stone Mountain...moving parts...lights....everything...it was really cool. 

 and there were legos of all sizes. these are big and rubber-like...

 Sissy

 working hard

 even Carsyn enjoyed the big blocks

 in his element!

 and there is the tongue...

waiting "in line"for the movie to start...

Carsyn's Cath

Last Thursday, Carsyn had her heart cath and valvuloplasty to fix her pulmonary valve.  Carsyn had a loud heart murmur and "click" that were detected at birth, caused by the pulmonary valve stenosis...so this procedure wasn't a surprise or anything...we had been monitoring the pressure gradient of the valve every month or 2 since birth, waiting on it to get high enough to justify fixing it and for her to be big enough to handle it. 

So January 24th was supposed to be her big day...we were mentally and emotionally prepared. My parents were here to watch the big kids. We showed up at the hospital by 6 AM with a baby that had not eaten all night and we were ready to get this over with.  The nurses took Carsyn to the back, gased her, attempted an IV, and then took her diaper off - and found horrible diaper rash!  She had had diarrhea the night before and slept in it...and I had changed her in the dark before heading to the hospital so I didn't realize how bad her bottom looked....The  Doc thought it looked like yeast so he called us and said that he didn't want to do the cath and risk dragging germs up to her heart. Valid reasoning.  We felt like like great parents! (I am sure the nurses had choice words for us!)

 these were pre-cath attempt 1

We rescheduled her cath for February 7 and I religiously cleaned and medicated her bottom for the 2 weeks leading up to it!  We prepared ourselves again and my parents came back into town...

 So here she is pre-cath - pretty happy for having not eaten since the night before and for having been woken up at 5:30 AM!!

 Once they took her to the back, it was a long morning of waiting! The cath nurse was really good about calling and updating us hourly...but sitting in a hospital room for 5 hours just waiting seems like an eternity!! Everything went well during the procedure and the Doc was able to get Caryn's pressure down exactly to where he wanted it. 

 Caryn was super groggy and out of it all afternoon...and finally woke up around dinner time - totally ticked off and irritable!   We had the stroller with us so Brent made lap after lap around the unit with her and at least she was quiet for a while! I stayed the night with her...and it was the longest night ever! Carsyn would scream if I put her in the crib (even if I thought she was sound asleep) so I held her all night. I am pretty sure I almost dropped her once when I dozed off so I was too paranoid to fall asleep again. Then, she somehow managed to pull her IV out and had to have a new one placed. Finally at 5:30 AM, I was able to put her in the stroller and she fell asleep - so we both got an hour or so of sleep! 

 Thankfully, when she woke up on Friday morning, she was in good spirits! They did an ECHO that verified that the pressure gradient in her heart was right where they wanted it. And we were discharged by 10:30 AM! 

Carysn's right leg still has decreased blood flow - its pale and cool, has weak pulses, and slow cap refill - so we are watching it carefully...but all else is good. Thank you all for the prayers and encouragement. We appreciate it!